EX  LIBRIS 


THE 


MOUNTAIN 


BY 

R.  M.  S.  JACKSON,  M.D., 

CORRESPONDING  MEMBER  OF  THE  ACADEMY  OP  NATURAL  SCIENCES  OF  PHILADELPHIA; 
MEMBER    OF    THE    AMERICAN    ASSOCIATION    FOR    THE    PROMOTION    OF    SCIENCE; 
MEMBER    OF    THE    AMERICAN     MEDICAL    ASSOCIATION;     MEMBER    OF    THE 
MEDICAL  SOCIETY  OF   PENNSYLVANIA;    MEMBER  OF   THE  CORPS   OF 
THE   GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY  OF  PENNSYLVANIA;   CORRESPOND- 
ING   MEMBER    OF    THE    ACADEMY    OF    SCIENCES    AND 
ARTS  OF  PITTSBURG ;  MEMBER  OF  THE  LYCEUM 
OF  JEFFERSON   COLLEGE,   CANONSBURG, 
ETC.  ETC.  ETC. 


"Heaven  shortens  not  the  life  of  man:  it  is  man  that  does  it  hy  his  own  crimes. 
Thou  mayest  avoid  the  calamities  that  come  from  heaven ;  but  thou  canst  never 
escape  those  •which  thou  drawest  upon  thyself  hy  thy  crimes." — CONFUCIUS. 


PHILADELPHIA  I 

J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT  &  CO. 
1860. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1860,  by 

R.  M.  S.  JACKSON,  M.D., 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  the  Eastern  District  of  Pennsylvania 


\  i    f 


A  WOED  TO  THE   SUBSCKIBEES 

OP 

THE  MOUNTAIN. 


FRIEND  SUBSCRIBER: — 

Are  you  a  country  doctor?  Do  you  "pull  teeth?" 
Are  you  your  own  cupper,  bleeder,  leecher?  Are  you 
your  own  druggist,  filling  out  in  detail  your  own  pre- 
scriptions? Are  you  surgeon,  midwife,  general  practi- 
tioner ;  and  have  you  no  time  to  get  fame  and  money 
through  any  of  the  specialties  of  the  profession — dis- 
eases of  eye,  ear,  lung,  stomach  and  bowel,  cerebro-spinal 
axis,  women  and  children,  because  you  are  "boy  of  all 
work,"  and  have  to  treat  them  all?  Are  you  occa- 
sionally pig,  cow,  and  horse  doctor  for  the  neighbors  ? 
Are  your,  patients  scattered  over  a  large  and  diversified 
surface,  which  you  must  traverse  on  horseback,  through 
swampy  roads,  wildernesses  of  fallen  timber,  traps,  dead- 
falls of  roots,  and  endless  continuities  of  black  forests; 
and  do  you  really  go  in  all  sorts  of  weather?  Are  your 
patients  so  inaccessible  that  most  of  your  time  is  con- 
sumed in  merely  destroying  space  to  get  to  them ;  and 
have  you  actually  anything  to  do  in  your  profession; 
and  when  you  do  your  work,  have  you  five  times  as  much 
trouble  to  get  your  bills  as  to  make  them  at  first,  your 
patients  knowing  better  than  you  do,  what  you  ought  to 
charge,  and  just  when  they  ought  to  pay  ?  Possibly,  to 
get  along,  you  may  be  trying  to  farm  a  little,  endeavor- 
ing to  scratch  some  hard  patch  of  desolation  into  agri- 
cultural propriety,  or  bravely  to  make,  like  the  hero  of 
"Life  in  the  Woods,"  some  tough  glebe  "say  beans!" 
This  is  all  very  well,  and  no  doubt  you  will  have  your 
reward  in  heaven.  But  permit  me  to  ask  you  a  few  more 
questions,  absurd  and  ridiculous  as  such  questions  may 
appear  to  common  sense — and  improbable  as  it  may  be 

SJ37S837 


IV  A  WORD   TO    THE   SUBSCRIBERS   OF 

to  expect  any  answer:  Are  you  trying  to  write  and  pub- 
lish a  book,  in  the  midst  of  all  this  horror  and  distrac- 
tion— nights  of  sleepless  anguish,  days  of  despair?  Are 
you  trying  to  repose  and  dream  in  a  drum,  or  paint  a 
picture  seated  with  your  easel  on  a  log-sled  hauled  by  a 
team  of  oxen  over  the  rocks,  roots,  logs,  and  stumps  of 
a  spruce-pine  clearing;  in  short,  have  you  been  trying 
to  do  in  the  broils  of  Bedlam  that  which,  to  do  aright, 
you  should  have  quiet,  absolute  repose  from  all  care 
and  anxiety,  still  nights  of  visions,  golden  mornings  of 
ecstatic  influx,  and  brave  days  of  spiritual  wrestling,  in- 
spired by  the  gentle,  heroic,  and  loving  sympathy  of  the 
living,  with  solemn  beckonings  and  greetings  of  grace 
and  holiness  from  the  dead?  Then,  did  I  understand 
you  to  say  that  you  were  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
from  your  publishers,  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from 
libraries  of  any  extent,  where  you  could  have  access  to 
books  of  reference  and  quick  facilities  for  correcting 
proof,  and  so  on  ?  And  you  have  really,  under  all  these 
difficulties,  been  going  through  the  torments  of  that  ever- 
lasting stone-rolling  of  Sisyphus  of  1700  ems  in  a  page, 
i-dottings,  t-crossings,  commas  stuck  in  by  nineteen  elab- 
orate rules,  colons  by  five,  semicolons  by  five,  periods  by 
five,  etc.? 

These  interrogations  you  answer  all  in  the  affirmative  ? 
Well,  then,  on  thy  brow  be  written  FOOL!  for  a  "thou- 
sand years  in  heaven  cannot  recompense  your  miserable 
heart"  for  such  a  blunder,  or  "make  you  capable  of  one 
brief  joy,"  after  such  a  hideous  folly!  "Ah,  me  !  mis- 
erable! which  way  shall  I  fly?" 

Pardon  the  unfortunate  author,  then,  benevolent  sub- 
scriber! and,  before  sending  him  away  from  this  court 
under  conduct  of  proper  officers,  "to  be  hanged  by  the 
neck  until  dead,  dead,"  (asking  the  Lord  to  have  mercy 
on  his  soul,)  allow  him  to  offer  for  your  reconsideration 
a  few  of  the  first  explanatory  words  of  the  announcement 
to  the  subscribers,  published  in  the  part  of  the  book 
printed  some  time  since,  as  some  apology  for  the  pro- 
tracted tedium  and  delay  in  the  delivery  of  the  whole 
volume;  for  now  the  voice  singing  the  song,  the  book 
heralding  the  claims  of  the  Mountain,  so  long  promised, 
is  actually  handed  to  you.  It  is,  and  from  the  surround- 


THE   MOUNTAIN.  V 

ings  of  the  author  could  not  be  otherwise,  a  feeble  effort 
withal,  patched  up  from  occasional  scribblings  of  a  trou- 
bled man, — a  tired  soldier  in  the  agonizing  life-fight, — 
or  squeezed  out  of  heart  and  brain  in  weary  interludes 
of  the  roar  and  shock  of  that  same  battle. 

When  the  rash  promise  was  made  to  write  a  Mountain 
book,  the  guardian  angel  of  one  soul  was  fast  asleep ;  and 
when  the  greater  part  of  the  subscription  list  was  made, 
there  was  no  book  in  existence.  Then  it  was  entirely 
unknown  what  kind  of  book  it  would  be,  or,  if  it  had 
any  existence,  what  sort  of  thing  it  was,  and  various 
surmises  were  risked.* 

*  These  surmises,  as  might  be  expected,  were  of  a  diversified  char- 
acter and  coloring,  viz. :  that  it  was  a  "Tragical  Romance,"  a  "Nar- 
rative," a  "Poem,"  a  "  Hoax,"  particularly  a — God  knows  what!  It 
was  well  known  to  all  the  friends  of  the  author  that  years  of  "storm 
and  pressure"  had  passed  over  his  head  during  his  labors  on  the  Alle- 
ghany  Mountain — years  of  the  most  disastrous  experiences — bitter, 
mournful,  and  pointing  to  the  grave  as  the  only  relief;  torments  such 
as  men  rarely  suffer.  At  one  time  the  active  member  of  six  firms, 
all  of  which  proved  infirm,  with  results  of  woe  and  despair,  whether 
through  Satan,  .Fate,  or  Folly,  it  matters  not,  it  was  natural  for 
these  friends  to  expect  that  something  of  the  order  of  "Sorrows 
of  Werter,"  "Confessions  of  St.  Augustine,"  possibly,  —  "Living- 
stone's Adventures  in  Africa,"  "Border  Life,  or  Wild  Sports  of  the 
West,"  "  Riley's  Narrative,"  "Robinson  Crusoe,"  "  Sinbad  the 
Sailor,"  or  "Romance  of  the  Black  Forest,"  would  come  off, — surely 
anything  but  a  "Song  to  Joy."  Think  of  a  country  doctor  practicing 
medicine  in  two  firms,  making  fire-brick  in  one,  sawing  lumber  in 
another,  cutting  cross-ties  for  a  railroad  in  another,  selling  drugs  in 
another,  and  speculating  in  mountain  lands  and  building  Health  In- 
stitutes on  his  own  hook,  all  at  one  time!  Old  Father  Adam  had  a  good 
Paradise  of  a  farm,  and  was  no  doubt  a  good  farmer.  It  was  ex- 
tremely foolish  in  him  to  try  to  get  into  other  business,  (endeavoring 
to  know  more  than  he,  ought  to  know,)  and  deliberately  take  the  chances 
of  that  tremendous  Fall.  No  doubt  he  thought,  like  everybody  else, — 

"And  set  it  down  in  his  table  of  forces, 
That  any  one  man  equals  any  four  horses." 

Results  were  inevitable — immeasurable  sorrow.  In  the  Prolegom- 
enon some  allusions  are  made  to  those  days  of  wrath,  experiences 
infernal,  things,  persons,  and  consequents,  which  the  friends  will 
understand,  knowing  all,  but  which  to  the  stranger  will  be  Greek 
and  darkness.  The  stranger  will  kindly  pardon  and  pass  all  that  he 
does  not  understand  in  the  category  of  local  and  personal  allusions. 
They  were  merely  a  sort  of  chimney,  through  which  escaped  the 
smoke  of  the  hell  in  which  the  unfortunate  author  was  roasted,  and 
have  no  essential  connection  with  the  Song  of  the  Mountain.  They 
legitimately  belong,  however,  to  the  genesis  of  the  book. 

1* 


yi  A  WORD   TO   THE   SUBSCRIBERS   OF 

It  was  at  first  ignorantly  and  profanely  considered  a 
joke  for  ugood  fellows,"  who,  as  was  supposed,  had  dis- 
ingenuously, and  even  feloniously,  deluded  the  author 
into  the  vain  and  stupid  conceit  that  he  had  something 
to  say  that  the  human  race  wanted  or  needed  to  hear. 

The  real  motive,  it  was  further  imagined,  was  a  wicked 
experiment  to  ascertain  the  exact  shade  of  verdancy 
afflicting  the  UNFORTUNATE,  and  the  precise  degree  of 
his  proclivity  to  a  sell,  and  not  a  veritable  delusion  on 
their  part,  that  he  could  say  a  word  that  ought  not  to 
be  lost. 

Grandly  transcended  and  forgiven  are  the  sages,  with 
whom  "wisdom  will  no  doubt  die." 

A  word  upon  what  we  have  been  about  must  suffice. 

The  flight  to  the  Mountain  was  always  looked  upon  by 
those  calling  themselves  sober,  common-sense  friends,  as 
an  absolute  dementia,  and  constantly  stuck,  or  rather 
dug,  into  the  tender  sensibilities  of  the  unfortunate 
author  of  the  Alleghany  Mountain  Sanitarium,  as  the 
prodigious  blunder  of  his  existence. 

Any  account  that  might  be  given  of  the  mountain, 
especially  the  unutterable  folly  of  ANY  BOOK  about  that 
plain  old  chain  of  pine-covered  knobs  and  its  true  signi- 
ficance to  men,  must  meet  the  unqualified  disapprobation 
of  this  self-styled,  sober,  common-sense  party;  and  any 
delay  in  the  appearance  of  said  book,  hailed  as  a  signal 
manifestation  of  the  merciful  interposition  of  a  special 
Providence. 

Earnest  in  the  belief  that  life  in  the  country  is  nearest 
connate  with  man's  organization,  securing  to  him  con- 
stantly the  greatest  of  all  blessings,  perfect  health  and 
physical  development,  and  standing  with  outstretched 
arms  a  great  world  of  counter-forces  or  balance-sheet  in 
favor  of  humanity,  against  the  destructive  influence  of  city 
life  or  the  fatal  results  of  the  swarming  instincts,  founding 
the  Sanitarium,  and  uttering  a  voice  from  the  woods,  have 
become  a  mission,  solemn  as  a  command  from  Heaven, 
and  with  the  sternness  and  reality  of  life  and  death. 

Is  it  not  time  for  the  Philanthropist,  whose  highest 
form  is  the  "healing  man,"  to  ask  the  significance  and 
end  of  the  action  of  the  depraved  and  vitiated  gregarious 


THE   MOUNTAIN.  Vll 

instincts  which  now  impel  this  race  to  fix  its  hopes  of 
earthly  happiness  on  city  life  alone,  and  associate  its 
dreams  of  man's  perfection,  and  the  highest  ENDS  of  his 
existence,  with  anything  but  a  rational  culture,  by  the 
love  and  study  of  the  laws  of  this  beautiful  world,  and 
the  obeying  of  the  divine  behest  by  executing  the  humble 
offices  of  an  industrious  and  real  life? 

Can  the  present  tendency  to  agglomerate  in  swarms, 
or  accumulate  in  masses  and  mobs,  be  designated  by  any 
such  agreeable  appellations  as  love  of  society,  associa- 
tion for  mutual  refinement  and  exaltation,  or  Christian 
compact  for  the  advancement  and  more  perfect  develop- 
ment of  the  social  instincts  of  the  soul? 

Inspect  the  present  fruit  of  this  wondrous  human  tree. 
It  is  called  a  composite  race,  having  in  it  dribblings  of 
all  the  bloods,  but  with  two  varieties  of  the  typical  Cau- 
casian form  predominating;  namely,  the  Celtic  and  Teu- 
tonic. 

The  Celt,  in  the  parlance  of  the  ethnological  savant, 
is  said  to  be  polytheistic,  monarchical,  despotic,  sensuous, 
gregarious,  frivolous,  excitable,  etc. ;  while  the  Teuton 
is  affirmed  to  be  monotheistic,  democratic,  self-sufficient, 
solitary,  intense  in  love  of  freedom,  hating  aristocracies, 
castes,  and  shams. 

Examine  this  composite  fruit  (the  inhabitants  of  the 
United  States)  of  the  two  tallest  branches  of  the  blood- 
tree,  man,  and  say  to  which  its  destiny  leans  ? 

Its  instincts  seem  to  come  from  below,  and  struggle 
to  drag  it  down  still  lower. 

If  the  commercial  despotism  which  now  holds  the 
world  in  its  grasp  will  develop  warts  and  wens,  cancers 
and  dropsies,  on  the  surface  of  the  planet,  in  the  shape 
of  overcrowded  cities,  at  the  expense  of  the  well-being 
and  normal  life  of  the  whole  race,  and  persist  in  catch- 
ing men,  as  trout  are  caught  by  artificial  fancy  flies,  let 
it  take  the  responsibility,  and  answer  to  the  ages  for  the 
certain  abridgment  of  the  mean  duration  of  human  life, 
and  the  vitiated  and  perverted  reign  of  the  elements  of 
anarchy  and  death. 

Why  do  the  highest  and  lowest  meet  in  city  life  in 
infernal  fellowship?  One  class  dissipates,  flourishes, 


Vlii  A  WORD   TO    THE   SUBSCRIBERS    OF 

lives  fast,  sins  fast,  dies  fast;  while  the  other  drudges, 
withers,  sinks  fast,  suffers  fast,  and  also  dies  fast.  One 
class  is  vicious,  proud,  imperial;  the  other  low,  menial, 
degraded, — both  guilds  forgetting  humanity,  forgetting 
God;  swallowed  by  one  common  fate,- ingulfed  in  one 
common  ruin. 

The  beckoning  from  the  mountain-top,  the  significance 
of  the  country  life,  the  song  of  the  hill  and  meadow, 
have  assumed  gravity  and  grandeur. 

Man  in  contact  with  the  healthy  real,  man  militant 
with  rocks  and  trees,  snakes  and  wolves,  man  ready  and 
willing  to  work,  to  dig  and  to  delve  for  his  own  blood, 
especially  happy  to  do  something,  to  advance  and  to 
grow,  stands  out  in  beautiful  relief,  the  king  of  the 
planet,  sceptred  and  crowned. 

Might  not  a  friendly  voice  from  the  woods  be  heard 
in  the  hum  and  shock,  or  possibly  reach  the  ear  of  some 
haggard  sufferer,  writhing  in  the  folds  and  meshes  of  the 
artificial  life,  or  flung  out  scathed  and  blasted  by  the 
wayside,  and  inspire  him  with  hope  that  the  blue  hills 
and  green  fields,  the  cool  sequestered  forests,  the  lonely 
haunts  by  mountain  springs  in  the  stillness  of  evening 
or  dewy  freshness  of  the  morning,  might  have  life,  health, 
and  joy  for  him  ? 

With  sweet  solicitude  the  kind  earth  woos  him.  Come, 
my  feverish  boy !  my  poor,  hot,  sinful,  sick,  and  poisoned 
child!  fast  horses  and  champagne,  green  turtle  and  ter- 
rapin, whisky  and  oysters,  are  not  the  a  dream  of  life" 
realized.  Come,  troubled  one,  "Nature  is  medicinal;" 
there  is  salvation  in  exercise  and  honest  labor.  Come, 
"grow  two  blades  of  grass  where  one  grew;"  from  the 
eye  of  the  potato  fill  your  eye  and  stomach,  too;  come, 
grow  fruit  and  bread  plants  instead  of  poison  weeds  and 
brambles ;  the  rambo  apple  for  the  crab ;  delicious  pears 
instead  of  knotty  haws ;  the  ox  and  horse  in  place  of  deer 
and  elk ;  but  especially,  come,  regrow  thyself,  and,  with 
thy  body  renewed,  introduce  thyself  to  the  universe  with 
a  renewed  soul ! 

"Pass  thou  through  Mount  Ephraim,  and  the  land  of 
Shalisha,  the  land  of  Shalim,  the  land  of  the  Benjamites, 
into  the  land  of  Zuph,"  and  there,  like  Saul,  the  son  of 


THE   MOUNTAIN.  IX 

Kish,  hunting  his  father's  asses,  thou  slialt  be  "among 
the  prophets,"  and  find  a  kingdom. 

Rebellious  transgressor!  Science  has  long  struggled 
for  thee ;  Nature  has  importuned  thee, — come,  be  a  fact, 
do  a  thing,  be  saved ! 

The  struggle  has  been  to  set  the  claims  of  the  moun- 
tain to  the  music  of  science  and  nature.  It  was  a  pre- 
sumptuous effort,  and  much  time,  labor,  suffering,  and 
certain  failure  were  inevitable.  Hence,  friend  sub- 
scriber, somewhat  annoying,  even  galling  it  must  be 
acknowledged,  had  become  your  oft-repeated  queries: 
Why  don't  you  print  that  book  we  subscribed  for  ?  What 
are  you  so  long  about?  (as  if  a  book  were  a  "toby 
cigar,"  and  its  leaves  could  be  rolled  up  in  a  minute!) 
What  have  you  found  on  that  old  mountain  to  interest 
you?  What  can  you  say  about  it  worth  hearing?  What 
scribblings  about  its  old  rocks  and  trees,  its  air  and 
waters,  can  you  make  that  any  one  will  read? — For 
Heaven's  sake  tell  us,  what  is  the  book  about? — and, 
whatever  it  is,  why  don't  you  print  it? 

True,  they  are  plain  old  rocks  and  trees,  plain  old 
crystalline  skies,  limpid  waters,  and  piny  heights — very 
plain  to  seared  and  bleared  eyes;  plain  to  benumbed 
brains  and  nauseated  stomachs;  plain  as  square  acres 
of  the  old  salt  sea,  monotonous  as  square  miles  of  Lib- 
yan sand  deserts.  But  reflect,  profane  interrogator, 
on  this  sublime  fact :  a  wheelbarrow  load  of  desert  frag- 
ments, a  pailful  of  ocean  water,  could  not  be  exhausted 
by  science  in  a  thousand  years ! 

Be  patient,  then;  meditate;  be  considerate,  subscriber! 
Any  undue  haste  in  the  narration  of  the  advantages  of 
tlie  rural  life,  so  imposing  and  beautiful ;  any  undignified 
hurry  in  a  dissertation  on  the  sacred  and  sublime  theme 
of  the  "Paradise  regained"  by  man's  physical  redemp- 
tion from  vice  and  disease,  and  his  attainment  of  the 
healthy  life,  the  painless  death,  and  blissful  transit  to 
immortal  joy,  would  be  to  ignominiously  profane  these 
subjects;  and  any  indecorous  precipitancy  in  the  re- 
hearsal of  the  august  oratorio  of  the  mountain,  would 
be  almost  impious  and  sacrilegious, — certainly  a  crime 
indictable  before  the  high  court  of  Propriety. 


X  A  WORD    TO   TIIE    SUBSCRIBERS    OF 

In  the  treatment  of  these  great  subjects  the  solemn 
watchword  throughout  has  been,  EARNESTNESS;  and  the 
only  desire,  as  the  world's  recognition  and  appreciation 
of  an  effort  thus  humble  but  sincere,  is  simply  the  intel- 
ligent and  grave  conviction,  it  is  HONEST. 

The  real  desire  has  been  to  get  something  of  the  natu- 
ral science  of  that  piece  of  the  venerable  spheroid  (the 
earth)  called  the  Alleghany  Mountain,  made  more  gen- 
erally known  to  men,  also  to  try  to  introduce  some  of 
its  metaphysical  elements  into  the  recorded  soul  of  the 
world;  but,  above  all,  to  assert  its  sanitary  claims  or 
powers  to  produce  health  and  happiness. 

It  will  occur  to  the  intelligent  thinker,  that  such  an 
undertaking  was  anything  but  a  "joke"  to  a  wretched 
slave  of  a  country  physician,  trying  to  scratch  his  bread 
from  a  surface  of  naked  sand-rocks;  and  weeks,  even 
months  of  continuous  arrestation  of  the  work,  and  stand- 
ing still  of  all  things,  were,  from  the  nature  of  his  en- 
gagements, inevitable. 

The  story  of  the  mountain  has  in  this  manner,  as 
already  stated,  been, FORCED  to  crawl  slowly  and  lan- 
guidly out  through  a  multitude  of  never-ceasing  occu- 
pations. Torn  by  distractions,  bewildered  by  complex 
functions,  will  you,  subscriber,  pardon  the  delay  in  the 
appearance  of  the  book,  when  you  are  assured  that 
something  really  useful  has  been  attempted;  some  cata- 
logues of  facts,  even  if  they  are  fragmentary  and  unfin- 
ished, some  suggestions,  however  crude  and  inelaborate, 
have  been  made;  and  that  some  earnest  aspirations  and 
prayers  have  been  breathed  (however  untimely,  un- 
comely, and  ungrateful  to  averted  ears)  for  the  well- 
being,  especially  of  diseased  and  suffering  fellow-sin- 
ners? 

One  thing  you  WILL  accord,  and  have  the  justice  to 
acknowledge,  that  WHATEVER  the  BOOK  may  be,  a  reality 
is  in  the  Mountain  and  its  Sanitarium,  positive  and  alive, 
as  the  blood  and  heart  of  man  are  alive. 

Be  it  then  what  it  may,  "monstrum  horrendum"  or 
"ridiculous  mouse,"  the  book  of  "The  Mountain"  is 
now  a  fact  on  the  stupid  list  of  existing  things. 

From  the  tyranny  of  the  hour,  and  the  inexorable  des- 


THE   MOUNTAIN.  xi 

potism  of  circumstance,  it  could  not  be  a  finished  closet 
production,  sand-papered  into  extreme  smoothness,  pol- 
ished, varnished,  and  tortured  into  severest  proprie- 
ties. Unfortunately,  the  felicities  and  graces  of  the 
word  have  not  been  consulted,  nor  refinement,  finish,  and 
ornamentation  of  style  adhered  to.  The  asperities  of  the 
mountain,  that  rugged,  formless,  semichaotic  old  pile  of 
moss-covered  rocks,  had  insinuated  themselves  into  the 
brain,  and  overwhelmed,  with  the  intoxication  of  enthu- 
siasm, the  soul  of  the  blundering  scribe,  and  it  could  not 
be  otherwise  but  that  roughness  must  appear  in  and 
characterize  the  scripture.  It  is  known  of  a  number  of 
popular  lecturers  that  they  have  delivered  their  lecture's 
several  hundred  times,  and  afterwards  published  them 
in  a  book.*  Think  of  a  small  patch  of  garden  being 
weeded  every  five  minutes  over  and  over,  all  its  walks 
scraped,  trees  clipped  into  primmest  attitudes,  every  bush 
fixed  up  to  be  looked  at,  every  grass  spot  shaped  "so 
nicely' — a  perfect  paradise  of  proprieties  and  gentili- 
ties elaborately  dressed  for  great  occasions!!  These 
lectures,  and  their  consequent  books,  were  of  course  de- 
signed for,  and  generally  delivered  to,  large,  cultivated, 
and  highly  refined  metropolitan  audiences,  where  intel- 
lectually cormorantine  men,  having  swallowed  all  litera- 
tures, arts,  and  sciences,  have  become  dainty  and  fas- 
tidious; and  the  world  of  thought  and  sentiment,  under 
the  "refining  suggestions  of  woman's  brain,"  have  been 
required  to  be  mellowed  into  divine  softness  and  sublima- 
tion, delicacy  and  grace.  Such  rasped  and  burnished 
production  could  not  be  expected  from  a  rude  fighter, 
a  common  private  in  the  ranks  of  the  sanguine  order  of 
knights  of  the  lancet,  who  was  required  to  be  on  per- 
petual duty  in  actual  service,  and  at  constant  hand- 
gripes  with  the  emissaries  of  death.  Alas !  beloved  sub- 
scriber and  friend  of  the  sentimental  and  delicate  order, 
only  disappointment  awaits  you.  This  rough  mountain 
production  is  not  a  thing  that  could  be  printed  on  satin 
with  gold,  and  that  a  hypercritical,  over-cultivated,  mor- 
bidly-intensated,  intellectual  virtuoso,  or  fastidious  liter- 

*  How  charming  to  read  Everett's  Lecture  on  Washington  in  a 
book,  after  hearing  it  delivered  one  hundred  and  eleven  times! 


xii  A  WORD   TO   THE   SUBSCRIBERS. 

ary  duenna,  would  read  aloud  to  a  bevy  of  youthful  city 
blues,  lounging  on  sofas  in  the  regal  city  parlor ;  but  a 
story  that  a  rugged  man  or  sensible  woman  (mother  of 
the  Gracchi)  might  possibly  find  useful  as  a  cicerone 
on  the  Alleghany  Mountain,  and  "worry  down"  a  page 
or  two  in  the  morning  twilight,  in  some  grove  of  God 
Almighty. 

It  seems  the  fate  of  laboring  men  to  be  rough,  and  work 
makes  not  only  the  hands  but  the  brain  hard.  It  has 
also  always  been  remarked  that  men  who  fight  the  ele- 
ments, and  come  in  contact  with  naked  realities,  as  mule 
and  ox  drivers,  soldiers,  sailors,  blacksmiths,  and  coun- 
try doctors,  are  always  uncouth,  and  have  a  disposition 
to  swear  a  little.  This  being  a  part  of  the  nature  of 
things,  nothing  can  be  said  on  the  question  of  refine- 
ment of  language,  and  the  general  roughness  of  such 
men,  or  their  productions.  Their  hearts  are  sometimes 
right,  if  their  heads  do  occasionally  require  combing. 

Need  an  apology  be  offered  for  the  rattle  of  the  pill- 
box in  the  "Mountain,"  any  more  than  for  the  repulsive 
presence  of  the  quills  of  the  porcupine  ? 

A  scraggy  bramble-patch  at  best  is  this  mountain 
book,  troublesome  and  disagreeable  to  travel  through; 
the  benevolent  hope  is,  however,  that  nobody's  private 
views  will  be  offended — no  petted  crotchets  scratched — 
no  pap-nursed  opinions  lacerated — no  spiritual  skirts, 
with  whatever  elements  dilated,  shall  be  torn — no  cher- 
ished formulae,  punctured  and  collapsed,  or  horn-lanterns 
fractured,  for  "No  proposition  should  astonish,  no  belief 
should  offend,  however  contrary  it  may  be  to  any  man's 
own,  as  there  is  no  fancy  so  frivolous  and  extravagant 
that  it  does  not  seem  to  be  a  very  suitable  product  of 
the  human  understanding." 

With  grateful  acknowledgments  for  patience  and  sym- 
pathy, kindly  forbearance  and  friendly  solicitude,  will 
you,  my  dear  subscriber,  allow  me,  after  offering  greet- 
ings of  affection,  with  a  benediction,  to  make  my  best 
bow,  and  say  farewell ! 

R.  M.  S.  JACKSON. 

ALLEGHANY  MOUNTAIN  SPRINGS,  ") 

Cresson,  Cambria  Co.,  Pa.,        v 

July,  18GO.  J 


THE  philosophy  of  spirit  must  develop  itself  out  of  the  philosophy  of 
Nature,  as  doth  the  flower  out  of  the  stem.  For  Nature  is  the  spirit 
analyzed  and  at  rest,  which  we  can  handle  at  our  pleasure.  It  does 
not  appear  only  for  an  instant,  but,  as  stone,  air,  and  such  like  entities, 
abideth  alway,  as  if  to  solicit  and  preserve  us  for  its  investigation. 

OKEN:  Biology. 


FOR  us  the  winds  do  blow, 
The  earth  doth  rest,  heaven  move,  and  fountains  flow. 

Nothing  we  see  but  means  our  good, 
As  our  delight,  or  as  our  treasure  : 

The  whole  is  either  our  cupboard  of  food 
Or  cabinet  of  pleasure. 

The  stars  have  us  to  bed ; 
Night  draws  the  curtain  which  the  sun  withdraws. 

Music  and  light  aitend  our  head : 
All  things  unto  our  FLESH  are  kind, 

In  their  descent  and  being ;   to  our  MINP, 
In  their  ASCENT  and  cause. 

More  servants  wait  on  man 
Than  he'll  take  notice  of.     In  every  path 

He  treads  down  that  which  doth  befriend  him 
When  sickness  makes  him  pale  and  wan. 

Oh,  mighty  love  !     Man  is  one  world,  and  hath 
Another  to  attend  him  I 

GEORGE  HERBERT. 


WHERE  one  scale  of  the  balance  is  quite  empty,  I  let  the  other  waver 
under  the  dreams  of  an  old  woman. 

Nonsense  is  a  scurvy  quality ;  but  not  to  be  able  to  bear  with  it,  and 
to  fret  and  vex  at  it,  is  another  sort  of  disease,  altogether  as  troublesome 


Moreover,  vulgar  and  casual  opinions,  considered  in  their  weight,  are 
indeed  something  more  than  nothing  in  nature. 

All  such  whimsies  as  are  current  about  us  deserve  at  least  to  be 
hearkened  unto.  As  to  me,  they  are  all  mere  vanity  ;  and  that  is  what  they 
really  import.  As  to  every  opposition,  we  don't  consider  whether  it  be 
just,  but  how  we  shall,  right  or  wrong,  disengage  ourselves  from  it. 
Instead  of  extending  our  arms,  we  thrust  out  our  claws. 

I  could  suffer  myself  to  be  roughly  handled  by  my  friends  telling  me 
I  am  a  fool  and  a  dreamer.  I  love  to  hear  gentlemen  speak  as  they  think, 
with  courage.  We  must  fortify  and  harden  our  organ  of  hearing  against 
this  ceremonious  sound  of  words.  I  love  a  strong  and  manly  familiarity 
and  conversation, — a  friendship  that  is  pleased  with  the  sharpness  and 
vigor  of  its  communications,  as  love  is  with  biting  and  scratching.  'Tis 
not  vigorous  or  generous  enough  if  it  be  not  quarrelsome,  if  it  be  civilized 
and  artificial,  if  it  treads  gingerly  and  is  afraid  of  a  shock. 

Neque  enim  disputari  sjne  reprehensione  potest.  I  incline  towards 
him  who  contradicts  and  instructs  me.  I  enter  into  a  conference  and  dis- 
pute with  great  freedom  and  ease,  forasmuch  as  opinion  meets  in  me  a 
soil  very  unfit  for  penetration,  and  too  hard  for  it  to  take  any  deep  root 
in.  No  proposition  astonishes  me,  no  belief  offends  me,  how  contrary 
soever  it  be  to  my  own. 

There  is  no  fancy  so  frivolous  and  extravagant  that  it  does  not  seem  to 
me  to  be  a  very  suitable  product  of  the  human  understanding. 

MICHAEL  SEIGNEUR  DE  MONTAIGNE. 


THE  Natural  Science  of  a  region  is  the  natural  language  of  that  region 
as  a  habitat  or  medium  of  existence  for  animated  beings.  Life  must  de- 
velop itself  under  the  absolute  conditions  of  life, — limited  on  one  side  by 
the  brute  immobility  of  ponderable  bodies,  and  on  the  other  held  by  the 
despotic  power  of  the  imponderables.  As  the  special  student  of  the 
phenomena  of  life,  normal  and  abnormal,  the  Physician  must  be  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  science  of  the  fragment  of  the  planet  upon  which  he 
operates, — namely,  its  geology  and  soil,  or  mineral  composition ;  its 
hydrography,  or  geographic  distribution  of  waters  ;  its  hydrology,  or  the 
QUALITY,  COMPOSITION,  and  PHENOMENA  of  its  waters ;  its  meteorology,  or 
constant  climatal  phenomena,  as  well  as  its  botany  or  zoology,  or  life  in 
the  plant  and  animal.  IGNORANT  of  the  great  volume  whose  leaves  are 
open  constantly  around  him  and  invite  him  to  explore  forever  their 
meaning,  and  of  which  disease  is  but  a  chapter,  he  is  unworthy  of  the 
respect  and  confidence  of  his  brother  man  as  high-priest  in  the  great 
sanctuary  of  Nature. 

ROBERT  SMITH. 


A  MAN  being  contented  with  his  own  particular  lot  and  duty  obtaineth 
perfection.  Hear  how  that  perfection  is  to  be  accomplished. 

The  man  who  maketh  an  offering  of  his  own  works  to  that  being  from 
whom  the  principles  of  all  beings  proceed,  and  by  whom  the  whole 
universe  was  spread  forth,  by  that  means  obtaineth  perfection.  The 
duties  of  a  man's  own  peculiar  calling,  although  not  free  from  faults,  are 
far  preferable  to  the  duty  of  another,  let  it  be  ever  so  well  pursued.  A 
man,  by  following  the  duties  which  are  appointed  by  his  birth,  doeth  no 
wrong.  A  man's  own  calling,  with  all  its  faults,  ought  not  to  be  forsaken. 
EVERY  UNDERTAKING  is  INVOLVED  IN  ITS  FAULTS,  AS  THE  FIRE  IN  ITS 
SMOKE.  A  disinterested  mind  and  conquered  spirit,  who,  in  all  things,  is 
free  from  inordinate  desires,  obtaineth  a  perfection  unconnected  with 
works  by  that  resignation  and  retirement  which  is  called  Sannyas  ;  and. 
having  attained  that  perfection,  learn  from  me,  in  brief,  in  what  manner 
he  obtaineth  Brahm,  and  what  is  the  foundation  of  wisdom. 

BHAGVAT-GEETA. 


LET  every  one  mind  his  own  business  and  endeavor  to  be  what  he  was 
made.  Why  should  we  be  in  such  desperate  haste  to  succeed,  and  in 
such  desperate  enterprises  ?  If  a  man  does  not  keep  pace  with  his 
companions,  perhaps  it  is  because  he  hears  a  different  drummer.  Let  him 
step  to  the  music  which  he  hears,  however  measured  or  far  away.  It  is 
not  important  that  he  should  mature  as  soon  as  an  apple-tree  or  an  oak. 

There  was  an  artist  in  the  city  of  Kouroo  who  was  disposed  to  strive 
after  perfection.  One  day  it  came  into  his  mind  to  make  a  staff.  Having 
considered  that  in  an  imperfect  work  time  is  an  ingredient,  but  into  a  per- 
fect work  time  does  not  enter,  he  said  to  himself,  "  It  shall  be  perfect  in  all 
respects,  though  I  should  do  nothing  else  in  my  life."  He  proceeded 
instantly  to  the  forest  for  wood,  being  resolved  that  it  should  not  be  made 
of  unsuitable  material ;  and,  as  he  searched  for  and  rejected  stick  after 
stick,  his  friends  gradually  deserted  him, — for  they  grew  old  in  their  works 
and  died  ;  but  he  grew  not  older  by  a  moment.  His  singleness  of  purpose 
and  resolution,  and  his  elevated  piety,  endowed  him,  without  his  know- 
ledge, with  perennial  youth.  As  he  made  no  compromise  with  Time, 
Time  kept  out  of  his  way,  and  only  sighed  at  a  distance  because  he  could 
not  overcome  him.  Before  he  had  found  a  stock  in  all  respects  suitable,  the 
city  of  Kouroo  was  a  hoary  ruin,  and  he  sat  on  one  of  its  mounds  to  peel 
the  stick.  Before  he  had  given  it  the  proper  shape,  the  dynasty  of  the 
Candahars  was  at  an  end,  and  with  the  point  of  the  stick  he  wrote  the 
name  of  the  last  of  that  race  in  the  sand,  and  then  resumed  his  work. 
By  the  time  he  had  smoothed  and  polished  the  staff,  Kalpa  was  no  longer 
the  pole-star ;  and,  ere  he  had  put  on  the  ferule  and  the  head  adorned 
with  precious  stones,  Brahma  had  awoke  and  slumbered  many  times. 
But  why  do  I  stay  to  mention  these  things  ?  When  the  finishing-stroke 
was  put  to  his  work,  it  suddenly  expanded  before  the  eyes  of  the  asto- 
nished artist  into  the  fairest  of  all  creations  of  Brahma.  He  had  made  a 
new  system  in  making  a  staff, — a  world  with  full  and  fair  proportions :  in 
which,  though  the  old  cities  and  dynasties  had  passed  away,  fairer  and 
more  glorious  ones  had  taken  their  places.  And  now  he  saw,  by  the  heap 
of  shavings  still  fresh  at  his  feet,  that  for  him  and  his  work  the  former 
lapse  of  time  had  been  an  illusion,  and  that  no  more  time  had  elapsed 
than  is  required  for  a  single  scintillation  from  the  brain  of  Brahma  to 
fall  on  and  inflame  the  tinder  of  a  mortal  brain.  The  material  was  pure, 
and  his  art  was  pure :  how  could  the  result  be  other  than  wonderful  ? 

THOREAU. 


PROLEGOMENON. 


A  PROLEGOMENON,  Proem,  or  Preface  to  any  production 
of  the  human  mind  is  defined  by  lexicographers  to  be 
"  preliminary  observations  to  a  book,"  "  introductory  re- 
marks or  discourse  prefixed  to  a  book,"  or  treatise  inform- 
ing the  reader  or  hearer  of  the  "main  design,"  or  whatever 
is  necessary  to  the  understanding  of  the  discourse,  book,  or 
essay.  A  Preface,  then,  ought  to  be  an  epitome,  a  con- 
densation, of  the  soul  or  substance  of  that  which  is  to  follow, 
a  shadow  cast  before;  at  least  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the 
field,  or  photograph  under  clearest  light  of  the  production 
itself.  In  the  nature  of  things,  is  this  possible  ?  Can  a  leaf 
preface  a  tree  ?  a  tree  preface  a  forest  ?  or  a  rock  preface 
a  mountain  ?  If  the  book,  essay,  or  discourse  told  its  own 
story,  why  a  twice-told  tale,  in  the  shape  of  a  preface,  to 
give  the  "  burden  of  its  song,"  "  main  design,"  "  introduc- 
tory remarks,"  or  whatever  is  necessary  to  the  understand- 
ing of  the  same  ?  To  speak  a  word,  to  tell  a  fact,  to  articu- 
late any  secret  of  the  universe,  truly  and  forever,  seems  to 
be  the  great  trouble  with  all  books,  essays,  and  discourses. 
"  To  speak  and  to  create  are  one  to  the  Infinite  :"  for  light 
to  be,  it  is  only  necessary  to  say,  "Let  there  be  light;"  but 
for  man,  the  finite,  poor  man  ! !  when  he  speaks,  there  is 
mumbling  and  confusion ;  the  idea  and  the  symbol,  the 
thought  and  its  dress  the  word,  can  scarcely  get  together: 
his  efforts  to  create  light  are  generally  followed  by  a  pain- 
ful visibility  of  his  own  darkness.  The  flirtations  of  the 
word  and  the  spirit  have  always  been  calamitous :  witness 
the  reign  of  horrors  and  barbarisms  in  the  history  of  the 
soul  in  the  past,  and  even  in  the  present  hour,  with  every 


8  PROLEGOMENON. 

lantern  and  flambeau  of  the  nineteenth  century  in  full  blaze 
of  illumination.  Here  is  ever  the  sad  tragedy,  "  the  pale 
realm  of  shade ;"  here  is  the  dim  domain  of  doubt  and  fear. 

All  literature  seems  but  the  record  of  blunders,  more  or 
less  flagrant  and  pitiable,  of  the  thought  trying  to  get  the 
fatal  word.  How,  then,  shall  a  preface  tell  the  "  main 
design"  of  a  book,  essay,  or  discourse,  when  most  books, 
essays,  and  discourses  fail  to  tell  it  themselves,  or  succeed 
but  lamely  ?  A  preface  is  often  a  simple  Oyez !  to  the 
world,  admonishing  all  persons  that  there  is  something  for 
sale  in  the  shape  of  intellectual  merchandise,  of  which  it 
affects  to  be  a  more  or  less  perfect  invoice.  More  generally 
the  preface  appears  a  forlorn  and  scraggy  creation,  in  the 
form  of  a  supplication  to  the  reader  to  have  faith  and  go 
on,  to  screw  up  his  courage  to  wade  through  the  coming 
revelation,  it  may  be  of  chaos  and  night,  of  heaviness  and 
sleep;  with  a  solemn  assurance  that  his  threshing  shall  not 
be  of  straw  alone,  but  that  the  winnowing  thereof  will  give 
some  grains  of  wheat. 

Or,  again,  a  preface  appears  a  sheepish,  stammering 
apology,  a  gawkish,  blundering  prayer  for  forgiveness  for 
the  impertinence  and  folly  of  asking  a  fellow-sinner  to  read 
something  that  the  writer  knows,  and  blushes  to  feel,  is  not 
worth  his  perusal.  More  frequently  it  comes  in  the  shape 
of  a  mendicant  address,  a  bow  profound,  an  obsequious  dis- 
play of  flags  of  truce,  or  some  show  of  the  white  feather,  or 
acknowledgment  of  the  presence  of  the  carrion-crow,  fear. 
"Authors  in  their  prefaces  generally  speak  in  a  concilia- 
tory, deprecating  tone  of  the  critics,  whom  they  hate  and 
fear;  as  of  old  the  Greeks  spoke  of  the  Furies  as  the 
jEumenides,  the  Benign  Goddesses."  One  other  very  import- 
ant fact  about  prefaces  is,  be  they  what  they  may,  "pre- 
liminary discourses,"  "analytic  synopses,"  camera-obscura 
pictures-iDEAL  of  the  coming  REAL,  or  precursors  however 
luminous,  elaborated,  and  useful,  they  are  never  read.  It 
is  sometimes  said  that  the  name  of  a  book — its  title-page — 
suggests  what  it  is,  or  is  redolent  of  its  contents.  This 


PROLEGOMENON.  9 

can  scarcely  be  true ;  for  an  inspection  of  a  catalogue  of 
books  is  frequently  a  chapter  of  supremest  affectations,  and 
would  carry  the  conviction  that  the  names  of  books  and 
their  title-pages  were  meant  to  delude,  and  conceal  the 
tenor  of  their  discourses;  that  the  genius  of  whim,  as  in 
many  other  departments,  presides  here  also;  and,  that  in 
the  baptism  of  the  crowd  of  intellectual  infants  that  appear 
daily,  rhyme  and  reason  have  seldom  stood  hand  in  hand. 
A  happy  title  is  a  happy  thing ;  but  most  books  are  like 
backgammon -boards,  with  "  Hume's  History  of  England" 
or  "  Shakspeare"  on  their  backs,  or  like  the  saintly  dodge 
of  that  pious,  heaven-inclined  soul  who  had  his  handsomely 
done-up  leather-cased  whisky-bottle  arranged  with  "  Holy 
Bible"  on  its  back.  Still,  they  say  there  is  "magic  in  a 
name,"  although  the  rose  by  any  other,  &c.  &c.  In  the 
consideration  of  names,  title-pages,  &c.,  is  not  the  "Moun- 
tain" as  suggestive  as  a  "  Sofa,"  upon  which  an  immortal 
poem  has  been  written;  or  a  "  Tub,"  another  imperishable 
tale;  or  the  "Louse,"  which  has  been  the  theme  of  an  eter- 
nal song?  "If  it  were  inquired  of  an  ingenious  writer 
what  page  of  his  work  had  occasioned  him  most  perplexity, 
he  would  point  to  the  title-page.  That  curiosity  which  we 
would  excite  is  most  fastidious  to  gratify;  yet  such  is  the 
perversity  of  man,  that  a  modest  simplicity  will  fail  to 
attract :  we  are  only  to  be  allured  by  paint  and  patches, 
and  yet  we  complain  that  we  are  duped  !  It  is  too  often 
with  the  titles  of  books  as  with  those  painted  representa- 
tions exhibited  by  the  keepers  of  wild  beasts;  where,  in 
general,  the  picture  itself  is  more  curious  and  interesting 
than  the  enclosed  animal." 

The  name  disposed  of,  and  the  title  fixed,  whilst  the 
futility  of  all  preface-writing  is  admitted,  what  of  the 
production  itself?  what  of  the  origin  and  contents  of  this 
book  you  call  the  "Mountain"?  What  excuse  have  YOU 
for  imposing  upon  the  world  another  calamity?  Can  there 
be  any  possible  apology  for  dragging  out  of  limbo  another 
confusion  of  tongues,  or  attempting  to  make  discordantly 


10  PROLEGOMENON. 

vocal  another  moment  of  the  harmonious  and  divine  silences 
which  hold  the  worlds  in  their  spells  ? 

This  is  the  beginning  and  substance  of  the  story,  also 
something  of  its  "to  whom  related"  and  by  whom  created, 
of  the  why  of  its  appearance,  the  how  it  came  about, 
and  the  what  it  is;  or  a  word  on  the  advent  to  the  Moun- 
tain, its  mission  and  motive,  with  a  cursory  notice  of 
some  of  the  beautiful  experiences  involved  in  that  crusade 
against  disease  and  death.  A  village  Doctor — the  "fool 
of  ideas,"  "poorly  tied  to  a  few  thoughts,"  victimized 
by  dreams — discovers  himself  to  be  violently  seized  and 
carried  irresistibly  away  by  a  number  of  despotic  per- 
ceptions and  intense  convictions;  among  which  the  self- 
sufficiency  of  the  universe  shone  forth,  and  ESPECIALLY 
the  REMEDIAL  FORCES  of  nature,  and  her  perpetually 
divine  conatus  to  restore  and  reproduce,  as  by  the  cura- 
tive powers  and  medicinal  virtues  of  climates,  changes  of 
localities,  with  accompanying  changes  of  whole  habitat,  of 
air,  water,  magnetism,  heat,  and  light,  of  all  earthly  and 
heavenly  influences  upon  the  body,  sanitary  impressions 
of  the  world  through  the  soul  upon  the  body,  of  the  aromal, 
the  spiritual,  as  well  as  material  and  dynamic,  powers  of 
the  earth,  operating  prophylactically  and  therapeutically 
upon  that  darling  of  Fate,  man;  nursing  him  maternally 
when  sick,  dandling  him  like  a  babe  when  well,  and  han- 
dling him  like  a  toy  perpetually;  streaming  through  him 
like  an^Eolian  harp,  rather  playing  upon  him  as  "a  STRING 
of  the^Eolian  harp  of  the  universe."  He  pursues  a  halluci- 
nation of  being  an  JEsculapian  regenerator  of  his  race  to  a 
distant  mountain-top,  the  great  summit-wave  of  the  Appa- 
lachian chain, — a  hydrographic  axis  between  the  waters  of 
the  Atlantic  Ocean  and  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  more  than  two 
thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea;  where,  near  a 
group  of  springs,  surrounded  by  unbroken  masses  of  primi- 
tive forests,  he  locates,  and  founds  by  legal  enactment  of 
the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania,  a  sanitarium,  under  the 
name,  style,  and  title  of  the  "  Alleghany  Mountain  Health 


PROLEGOMENON.  11 

Institute ;"  the  object  of  the  corporation  thereby  created 
being  to  purchase  lands,  to  erect  and  furnish  buildings,  to 
ornament  and  improve  grounds,  for  the  treatment  of  in- 
valids  and  for  the  enjoyment  and  amusement  of  others 
seeking  recreation  and  health;  also,  to  found  a  museum, 
library,  observatory,  and  other  facilities  for  the  study  and 
promotion  of  the  natural  sciences.  An  institution  thus 
embracing  both  elements  of  man,  its  end,  the  restoration 
and  perpetuation  of  the  soundness  of  his  physical  frame, 
and  the  culture,  development,  and  sanity  of  his  soul.  Thus 
was  the  infirm  mind  as  well  as  diseased  body,  the  spiritual 
as  well  as  the  animal  man,  to  be  represented.  Not  for 
wine-bibbers,  sensual  and  profane  persons,  not  for  the 
gross  and  godless,  not  for  seekers  and  lovers  of  pleasure 
alone  was  it  to  be  provided,  but  for  the  sick  and  the  suffer- 
ing, the  mournful  wanderers  in  the  dismal  realms  of  the 
pain-world,  and  to  whom  is  left  only  weariness  of  being, 
sorrow,  and  the  bitter  waiting  for  the  great  physician, 
Death.  Also  for  the  broken-hearted,  the  heavy-laden,  the 
oppressed  and  overworked  man,  of  whatever  calling  or 
election, — the  diseased,  disabled,  conscript  brother,  with 
"horny  hands  or  wrinkled  brow,"  who  with  heroic  will 
has  grandly  accepted  the  curses  of  existence,  and  dared  to 
fight  the  battle  of  life  manfully.  Also  the  privileged  bro- 
ther, born  with  golden  spoon  on  lip,  to  whom  existence  is 
a  long,  long  summer  day  of  delight,  pleasure,  pleasure  only 
being  the  "  chief  end  of  man,"  but  to  whom  also  is  there  a 
ghastly  compensation  revealing  itself,  in  the  revenge  of 
pound  of  pain  for  pound  of  pleasure,  of  pound  of  agony  for 
pound  of  joy. 

A  home  also  was  it  to  be  for  the  wise  and  the  gentle,  the 
cultivated  and  refined,  those  whose  bodies  long  for  more 
perfect  health,  and  whose  souls  also  hunger  for  knowledge; 
thus  offering  to  the  human  family  almost  the  whole  cata- 
logue of  good  things  left  at  the  fall  of  man ;  namely,  the 
pure  elements  of  nature,  health  and  soundness,  books,  and 
the  joys  of  wisdom,  including  the  compensation  of  two 


12  PROLEGOMENON. 

fruits  of  Paradise  still  growing  on  that  "poison-tree,  the 
world,  sweet  as  the  waters  of  life, — love,  or  the  society  of 
beautiful  souls,  and  poetry,  whose  taste  is  like  the  immor- 
tal juice  of  Yishnu."  In  the  pursuit  of  which  idea,  he 
invites  the  race  to  new  fountains  of  physical  redemption, 
sings  a  doctorial  song  of  joy  to  suffering  humanity,  asserts 
the  claims  of  the  mountain,  tells  the  story  of  what  it  is,  and 
what  it  CAN  DO  ;  vindicates  the  ways  of  Providence  to  man 
in  the  shape  of  pure  earth  influences,  pure  water  influences, 
and  pure  air  influences ;  proclaiming  also  the  influence  of 
all  good  things  upon  man,  the  high,  the  low,  the  simple,  the 
complex,  the  commonplace,  the  recondite,  every-day-by- 
the-roadside  influences,  also  the  power  of  the  high  and 
divine  upon  the  soul,  and,  through  the  soul,  upon  the 
miraculous  machinery  of  the  body.  Advocates  likewise 
the  combination  of  all  these  influences.  To  pure  mountain 
air  and  absolute  water  would  add  constant  exposure  to  said 
air,  with  boundless  swallowings  of  said  water,  accompanied 
by  arduous  walks  in  pine-groves,  heart  and  brain  intonated 
and  inspired  by  the  many-voiced  concerts  of  the  forests, 
attuned  to  the  "  lays  the  wood-gods  sing  j"  at  the  same 
time  knowing  surely  that  the  catching  of  mountain  trout 
must  develop  the  capacity  of  eating  and  digesting  mountain 
trout,  that  the  hunting  and  shooting  of  squirrels  must 
make  the  heart  jump  a-la-squirrel,  that  a  gallop  on  horse- 
back through  the  woods  will  gallop  the  troubled  soul  out  of 
the  slough  of  indigestion  and  despair,  and  into  the  gates  of 
light  and  hope,  making  the  "juices  to  career  through  well- 
strained  tubes,"  and,  consequently,  to  have  the  Sirens  sing. 

Thus,  whilst  the  body  should  drink  health  and  life  from 
the  charmed  goblet  of  nature,  could  not  the  soul  drink 
knowledge  and  wisdom  from  the  fountains  of  thought  ? 

"Would  not  the  excursion  of  the  botanist  develop  the 
capacity  to  digest  more  perfectly  his  flowers  and  mosses  ? 
would  not  the  journey  of  the  geologist  enable  him  to 
ASSIMILATE  more  absolutely  his  rocks  and  fossils  ?  would 
not  the  mind  of  the  bird-student  appropriate  his  game  in  H 


PROLEGOMENON.  13 

higher  and  BETTER  SENSE  than  his  stomach  could  enjoy  ita 
flesh,  whilst  the  overworked  artist's  sickly  face  would 
bloom  with  the  life  and  light  of  the  picture  his  hand  had 
wrestled  for,  and  won  from  the  world  ?  Concerning  all  of 
which  it  seemed  necessary  that  something  should  be  said. 
There  is  also  another  excuse  or  apology,  an  account  that  may 
be  rendered,  for  the  appearance  of  this  rude,  unkempt,  un- 
combed story  of  the  Mountain.  Being  a  regular  member 
of  the  Old  School  of  medicine  for  many  years,  and  thus  a 
Priest  in  the  sanctuary  of  healing,  according  to  the  unbroken 
apostolic  descent  from  Hippocrates  and  Galen,  the  Hegira, 
or  flight  to  the  mountain,  with  the  approaching  advent  of 
a  Hospital  or  Health-Eesort  for  invalids,  had,  as  supposed 
by  many  of  the  brethren  in  the  faith,  an  anomalous  appear- 
ance, an  aspect  eminently  suspicious,  even  rendering  the  author 
thereof  obnoxious  to  the  charge  of  apocryphalness  in  his 
pretensions  to  professional  soundness.  They  said,  "  It  has 
a  questionable  shape:  it  looks  like  a  hydropathic  arrangement. 
Are  you  really  a  convert  to  the  water-cure  ?  Have  you 
left  the  regular  profession,  and  have  you  ceased  to  practise 
secundum  artem?"  Being  immaculate  in  the  faith,  and 
accepting  with  religious  awe  the  venerable  oracles  of  Delphi 
as  the  true  and  only  fountain  of  medical  inspiration,  and 
having  with  zeal  and  piety  sworn  devoutly  and  constantly 
by  the  beard,  dog,  and  snake  of  Esculapius,  including,  in 
the  daily  recitation  of  the  calendar  of  true  saints  and  con- 
servators of  the  world,  the  lancet,  calomel,  and  quinine, 
Spanish  flies,  and  ipecacuanha,  it  became  painfully  incumbent 
to  utter  some  word  of  explanation,  some  rational  account, 
if  possible,  for  the  appearance  of  an  unhappy  doctor  of 
medicine  in  a  wilderness  where  the  original  elements  still 
reigned,  and  sand,  rocks,  trees,  water,  and  air  were  ALL 
that  Nature  had  left  as  implements  in  the  art  of  healing. 
The  afflux  of  hydropathic  advertisements,  pamphlets,  and 
even  patients,  gave  a  serious  coloring  to  the  impression 
that  some  obliquity  of  position  in  regard  to  the  infallibility 
of  the  ancient  school  of  medicine  existed;  that  the 


14  PROLEGOMENON. 

ephemeral  popularity  among  the  innocent  and  gullible,  the 
ignorant  and  frivolous,  of  some  of  the  fashionable  quackeries 
of  the  hour,  might  have  warped  and  even  seduced  him  from 
the  original  faith  of  his  culture :  hence,  from  the  instinct 
of  self-justification,  self-preservation,  and  explication,  a 
small  flourish  of  trumpets,  a  recitation  of  the  regular 
orthodox  creed  with  upturned  eyes  and  devout  genu- 
flexions,— in  short,  an  explanation  of  his  position,  aims,  and 
objects, — was  demanded,  and  lo !  the  army  of  his  haters 
(whose  name  is  legion)  have  an  answer  to  their  prayers, 
"Oh  that  our  enemy  would  write  a  book!"  and  thus  is 
that  same  forlorn  Medicus  pinned  to  the  wall  to  their 
hearts'  content.  The  folly  of  thus  exposing  his  unprotected 
flank,  and  even  surrendering  his  pneumogastric  and  umbili- 
cus to  the  fingers  of  his  enemies,  can  only  be  accounted  for 
from  the  fact  that  there  are  innocent  and  devout  men,  the 
greater  number  of  whose  original  snakes,  or  totally  depraved 
faculties,  are  still  fast  asleep,  and  who,  in  the  thick  darkness 
that  surrounds  them,  are  as  likely  to  blunder,  and  fall  into 
the  traps  and  snares  of  satanic  men,  as  to  stand  erect,  or 
walk  with  precision.  Included  in  the  foregoing  motives 
and  reflections  there  is  another  suggestion,  which  may 
have  been  instrumental  in  bringing  about  this  blunder  of 
the  Mountain.  There  are  erected  to  Priessnitz,  (an  igno- 
rant and  unlettered  serf,)  in  the  United  States,  a  large 
number  of  monuments, — that  is,  establishments  for  the 
"water-cure."  There  are  but  FEW  country  sanitaria  or 
health-establishments  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  regular 
profession  of  medicine.  What  does  this  mean  ?  Do  the 
gods  nod  ?  Is  Olympus  asleep  ?  Is  Apollo  dethroned  from 
the  guardianship  of  the  world,  and  has  he  retired  again,  in 
humility  and  sorrow,  to  watch  the  flocks  of  Admetus  on 
the  "  flowery  plains  of  Thessaly,"  or  to  wander  disconsolate 
through  the  «  moonlight  glades  of  Paphos"  ?  Have  Hippo- 
crates and  Galen  failed  ?  Have  the  spirits  who  watch  over 
the  destiny  of  the  earth  become  nauseated  with  the  odor 
of  drugs?  Has  the  regular  profession  become  fossilized 


PROLEGOMENON.  15 

in  dead  vocables,  with  its  "  shops,  pestle  and  mortar," 
"  dried  alligators'  skins  stuffed,  and  beggarly  account  of 
empty  boxes"  ?  And  is  this  living,  fresh-budding,  expand- 
ing, reproductive  Nature,  with  her  divine  powers  to  regene- 
rate and  save  the  bodies  of  men,  to  be  surrendered  to  quacks 
and  idiots,  who  shall  place  to  the  credit  of  humbuggery 
and  charlatanery  the  power,  wisdom,  and  loving  kindness 
of  Almighty  God,  who  has  provided  for  man's  sustenance, 
healing,  and  ecstasy  this  "world  of  goodness,  light,  and 
endless  love"  ?  Why  shall  not  the  regular  profession,  pos- 
sessing the  knowledge  and  wisdom  of  Nature,  and  holding  the 
only  keys  which  can  unlock  her  mysteries  and  scientifically 
exhaust  her  resources,  profit  by  her  system  of  goodness 
and  mercy,  her  scale  of  rewards  and  punishments, — reading, 
with  veneration  and  love,  the  miraculous  intelligence  and 
morality  that  run  hand-in-hand  through  all  things,  em- 
bracing solar  systems  as  well  as  stomachs  and  bowels,  and 
for  whose  rational  elaboration  and  merciful  administra- 
tion Science  stands  as  gentle  handmaid  and  ministering 
spirit  ?  Did  not  the  divine  Hippocrates,  twenty-three  hun- 
dred years  ago,  from  the  depths  of  his  transcendent  soul 
indite  a  treatise  on  "  Airs,  Waters,  and  Places,"  decided 
by  a  recent  astute  observer  to  be  the  "  most  philosophical 
of  his  wor^s,  evincing  extended  observation,  travel,  and 
study"?  And  does  not  this  wonderful  creation,  at  that 
hour  of  the  world's  progress,  evince  in  the  father  of  medi- 
cine an  instinct  of  the  spirit  bordering  on  the  inspiration  of 
prophecy  ?  "In  it  he  inquires  into  the  effects  of  the  seasons, 
winds,  and  various  kinds  of  waters,  localities,  nature  of  the 
soil,  modes  of  life,  and  exercise,  upon  health,  and  the  neces- 
sity of  a  physician  making  himself  acquainted  with  all  these 
matters. 

"He  next  points  out  the  influence  of  climates,  and  the 
diseases  depending  on  differences  in  them.  He  compares 
the  people  of  Europe,  and  especially  of  Greece,  with  those 
of  Asia,  and  shows  how  the  uniformity  of  the  climate  and 
the  fertility  of  the  soil  in  the  latter  induce  a  monotonous 


16  PROLEGOMENON. 

course  of  life  and  thought,  and  disinclination  to  exertion, 
in  the  inhabitants,  who  in  consequence  give  themselves  up 
to  indolence  and  love  of  ease;  whereas  the  Europeans, 
living  on  a  poorer  soil  and  in  a  climate  of  frequent  vicis- 
situdes, are  compelled  for  self-protection  to  exert  them- 
selves in  various  ways,  and  thus  acquire  habits  of  self- 
reliance,  and  display  greater  courage.  Hellenic  pride, 
and  consciousness  of  superior  advantages,  speak  through 
the  medical  philosopher  when  he  tells  us,  'On  this  account 
the  inhabitants  of  Europe  are  more  warlike  than  the 
Asiatics ;  and  also  owing  to  their  institutions,  because  they 
are  not  governed  by  kings  like  the  latter ;  for  where  men 
are  governed  by  kings  there  they  must  be  very  cowardly, 
as  I  have  stated  before, — for  their  souls  are  enslaved,  and 
they  will  not  readily  or  willingly  undergo  dangers  in  order 
to  promote  the  power  of  another.  But  those  that  are  FREE 
undertake  dangers  on  their  own  account,  and  not  for  the 
sake  of  others :  they  court  hazard  and  go  out  to  meet  it ; 
for  they  themselves  bear  off  the  rewards  of  victory :  and 
thus  these  institutions  contribute  not  a  little  to  their 
courage/  Ethno-climatic-MEDiCAL  and  political  teachings 
of  this  nature  ought  to  find  willing  disciples  among  the 
people  of  the  United  States."  And  here  the  observation 
might  be  recorded,  that  the  profession  of  mq^icine  could 
certainly  profit  by  an  occasional  retrospective  glance  into 
the  past,  and  even  by  return  to,  and  some  gleanings  of,  the 
ancient  fields,  if  only  to  demonstrate  that  Priessnitz, 
Hobensack,  Hahnemann,  and  the  whole  ravens  army  of 
quackdom,  have  all  been  surrounded,  and  the  ground  pre- 
occupied, by  science  and  reason, — both,  it  may  be  admitted, 
in  a  state  of  comparative  infancy  in  those  far-off  ages, 
and  walking  with  somewhat  tottering  and  uncertain  steps, 
i)at  still  under  the  influence  of  the  great  and  healthy  in- 
stincts of  the  soul,  and  under  the  direction  of  the  great 
ORGANIC  EYE  which  has  progressively  opened,  and  now 
drinks  in  the  strongest  sunlight  of  the  mind  of  the  present 
hour. 


PROLEGOMENON.  17 

This  is  a  subject  of  surprise:  a  treatise  on  "Airs,  Waters, 
and  Places"  has  been  in  existence  twenty-three  centuries, 
and  a  world  of  human  creatures  have  been  groping  their 
way  through  life,  bowed  down  by  the  curse  of  a  host  of 
diseases,  existence  darkened  and  imbittered  by  pain  and 
suffering  from  infirmities  which  could  have  been  cured  by 
the  magical  power  of  "airs,  waters,  and  places,"  whose 
jubilant  song  of  physical  redemption  had  been  shouted 
more  than  four  hundred  years  before  the  arrival  of  the 
Christian  religion  upon  earth;  before  the  Nazarene  youth 
had  ravished  the  ear  of  suffering  man  with  the  melodies 
of  his  voice  upon  the  precious  problems  of  the  "  blessed 
life"  and  the  salvation  of  the  soul. 

"  Were  man  to  live  coeval  with  the  sun, 
The  patriarch-pupil  would  be  learning  still." 

Unhappy  star-gazer !  he  is  looking  to  the  heavens  for 
succor,  when  it  is  under  his  feet;  he  goes  through  elaborate 
processes  of  medication  under  renowned  wisdom,  or  vic- 
timizes himself  by  the  mummeries  of  quackery,  as  in  the 
multiplex  soakings  and  pourings  of  hydropathy,  or  the 
delusive  efforts  at  swallowing  the  fantastic  shadows-of- 
shades  of  homoeopathic  globules,  whilst  "  in  every  path  he 
treads  down  that  which  doth  befriend  him  when  sickness  makes 
him  pale  and  wan.'1  Impressed  with  the  conviction  of  the 
infinite  wisdom  and  perfection  of  all  things,  that  each 
object  is  "  full  of  use  and  duty,"  that  Nature  is  always 
man's  obedient  servant,  and  as  a  patient  donkey  will  carry 
her  liege-lord  like  a  king,  that  she  invites  him  forever  to 
study  and  learn  her  ways,  which  are  surely  wisdom,  and 
to  obey  her  decalogue,  which  is  always  peace,  and  which  is 
written  in  stars  and  grass-blades  as  well  as  blood-globules  and 
palpitating  viscera,  and  as  clearly  legible  in  the  laws  of  health 
and  disease  as  in  sidereal  systems  and  the  soul;  that  man's 
apparent  dislocation  with  Nature  is  purely  accidental ;  that 
he  may  become  a  "garden  in  a  paradise/'  growing  with 
the  milk  of  the  corn,  flowing  with  the  blood  of  the  grape ; 
that  the  gulf  so  deep  and  wide  is  not  in  Nature,  but  in  man 


18  PROLEGOMENON. 

himself;  that  when  men  are  sensible  and  sound  they  shall 
affect  the  longevity  of  the  patriarchs,  and  shoot  the  black 
stream  as  quietly  and  sweetly  as  now  they  "  walk  the 
waves  of  sleep/'  instead  of  blundering  through  the  grim 
valley  in  an  agonizing  and  protracted  death-struggle,  slowly 
crushed  by  pain;  and,  finally,  that  the  human  family  was 
not  created  solely  for  evil  and  suffering,  or  eternally  fore- 
ordained to  endure  the  curse  of  disease  and  pain  ;  that 
health  is  the  birthright  of  every  created  thing,  from  the 
polypus  to  the  man ;  that  the  condition  called  normal — 
which  means  perpendicular — is  blessed  Nature's  aim  and  end. 
"Heaven  shortens  not  the  life  of  man:  it  is  man  that  does 
it,  by  his  own  crimes."  Consumption  and  dyspepsia,  neu- 
ralgia and  gout,  mumps  and  measles,  bilious  fever  and  small- 
pox, are  certainly  not  angels  from  heaven;  and  the  inevi- 
tability undodgable,  and  that  forever  inseparable  connection 
of  violation  of  laws  of  life  and  health  with  pain  and  disease,  of 
the  tax  of  suffering  that  must  be  paid  for  infraction  of  the 
law  by  vicious  indulgence,  are  written  in  the  experiences  of 
every  hour,  in  every  gorged  stomach,  in  every  whisky- 
deranged  liver  and  brandy-boiled  brain,  in  the  slabbering 
salivation  of  tobacco,  or  the  reekings  of  its  smoke  from  the 
human  mouth  and  nostrils,  in  bread  forever  sour,  in  meat 
converted  into  indestructible  sole-leather,  in  insane  and 
barbarous  habits  of  life,  or  wicked  murdering  of  the  body 
by  the  whole  army  of  devils  of  Depravity  and  Vice  under 
the  despotic  drill  of  that  savage  Monkey-Queen  of  absurdi- 
ties, Fashion,  enthroned  on  her  rocks  of  ages,  "  caste-keeping 
and  guild-preserving,"  and,  worst  of  all,  the  eternizing  of  dis- 
ease and  defective  development  in  the  process  of  generation 
profane  and  ungodly,  presided  over  by  the  genius  of 
sin  and  death, — true  dust  and  ashes  of  the  apples  of 
Sodom,  the  words  "hereditary  taint"  having  attained 
a  fearful  significance.  This  i«  that  sour  curse  of  the  "sins 
of  the  fathers"  followed  by  teeth  upon  edge  and  heritages 
of  woe  in  third  and  fourth  generations.  This  is  the  true 
opening  of  the  box  of  Pandora ;  this  is  that  "  rash  hand 


PROLEGOMENON.  19 

that  in  evil  hour"  still  stretches  forth  to  pluck  forbidden 
fruits  and  "  unbar  the  gates  of  hell."  Thou  mayest  avoid  the 
calamities  that  come  from  heaven  by  publishing  a  sound 
and  healthy  existence,  with  temperance  and  virtue,  through 
the  laws  of  thy  normal  organization;  but  thou  canst  never 
escape  those  calamities  which  thou  drawest  upon  thyself 
and  thine  offspring  by  the  introduction  of  demons  of  disease 
and  destruction  into  thine  own  body ;  for  the  human  form  is 
either  a  Paradise  for  angels  and  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
a  nest  of  unclean  birds,  or  a  den  of  venomous  reptiles. 
And  this  brings  the  recognition  of  the  wise  significance  of 
the  uses  and  ends  of  all  suffering ', — that  it  is  a  schoolmaster's 
rod  and  an  instrument  of  goodness  and  love,  the  end  pro- 
posed being  the  regeneration  and  salvation  of  the  culprit 
or  criminal,  the  reformation  of  the  offender  against  the  law, 
and  thus  the  creature  of  good,  at  the  same  time  flouting  the 
profane  doctrine  of  disinterested  malignity  on  the  part  of 
the  Eternal,  and  clearly  discerning  that  in  the  divine 
economy  for  each  hurt  there  must  be  a  heal,  for  each  smart 
a  salve,  for  every  woe  a  balm.  Profoundly  impressed  and 
overshadowed  by  the  immense  reality  of  this  conviction, 
and  held  firmly  bound  by  an  abiding  faith  in  the  healing 
influences  of  the  simplest  and  constantly  present  powers  of 
the  world,  this  dominant  idea  has  been  pursued,  hunted, 
enthusiastically  explored,  and  wrestled  with,  until  the  gos- 
pel of  "Airs,  Waters,  and  Places,"  and  their  power  over 
the  human  body,  has  become  the  universe.  Thus  one  ele- 
ment of  success  shines  conspicuously  forth  : — Faith,  Faith  ! 
the  soul  of  every  real  conquest  of  the  world. 

"The  lover  may 

Distrust  the  look  that  steals  his  soul  away ; 
The  babe  may  cease  to  think  that  it  can  play 
With  heaven's  rainbow ;  alchymists  may  doubt 
The  shining  gold  their  crucible  gives  out ; 
But  Faith, — fanatic  Faith, — once  wedded  fast 
To  some  dear  phantom,  hugs  it  to  the  last." 

The  Temple,  or  Place  for  the  administration  and  dispen- 


20  PROLEGOMENON. 

sation  of  the  promises  and  blessings  of  this  evangel,  then, 
became  the  great  desideratum.  To  get  a  "  Place"  with  its 
"airs  and  waters"  for  the  Sanitarium,  or  home  of  healing 
for  all  suffering  and  infirmity,  has  long  been  an  absorbing 
effort,  the  tyrannous  thought  and  constant  fight  for  years, 
the  only  aim  and  motive  of  action  and  existence. 

Devoured  by  this  vast  and  overpowering  enthusiasm, 
caught  up  into  the  vortex  of  a  celestial  ardor,  in  this 
chivalric  pursuit  of  an  ideal  so  transcendent,  of  an  end 
so  apparently  unattainable,  it  was  inevitable  that  fearful 
battles  with  the  hard  actual,  with  the  material  and  gross, 
with  wicked  and  anarchic  powers,  in  all  the  mournful  and 
wearisome  details  of  the  real  in  this  vulgar  work-a-day 
world,  even  mingled  with  elements  of  the  tragic  and  mar- 
vellous, must  come.  In  short,  there  must  inevitably  ar- 
rive the  bores  and  tortures  inseparable  from  the  unex- 
pected adventures  of  a  village  Leech  leaving  his  doctorial 
puddle  in  search  of  benevolent  and  humane  reformations 
and  healing-institutions;  involving  also  quixotic  money- 
tilts  with  windmill  issues,  cowing  of  lions,  blanketings, 
&c.,  not  forgetting  frequent  collapses  towards  annihilation. 
It  is  a  natural  query,  and  has  been  often  made:  What 
could  tempt  a  doctor  to  leave  a  bailiwick  in  which  he 
enjoyed  all  a  country  practitioner  could  or  should  enjoy,  or 
wish,  or  deserve  to  possess  upon  earth, — namely,  common 
comforts  of  life,  occasionally  some  money,  (every  one  knows 
it  was  semi-occasionally  !)  very  much  more  reputation  and 
professional  ascendency  than  he  deserved, — all  that  a  vil- 
lage, indeed,  could  give  to  any  one  who  wished  to  be  an 
honest  worker  in  the  ranks  of  the  guild  to  which  he  be- 
longed,— and  go  a  Mazeppa-ride  through  wastes  of  hungry 
wolves  and  ravens,  perhaps  to  eternal  exile  and  ruin  ?  It 
might  relieve  the  inquirer  slightly  if  he  should  reflect  for  a 
moment  upon  the  amount  of  tragic  elements  in  the  country 
physician's  life  at  best,  including  the  whole  detail  of  human 
suffering  to  be  seen,  heard,  and  felt,  with  only  the  hope  of 
some  fruits  of  reward  in  the  shape  of  credits  in  heaven; 


PROLEGOMENON.  21 

not  to  speak  of  mere  terrestrial  results,  in  the  form  of 
growth  and  development  from  discipline  and  tuition  of  the 
conflict  with  adversity.  Although  it  cannot  be  said  that 
village  life  was  at  all  an  approach  to  Paradise,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  it  had  much  in  it  that  sinners  want  on  earth; 
and  much  more  than  they  deserve,  even  much  more  than 

A  COUNTRY  DOCTOR  DESERVES,  which  of  COUrse,  FINALLY,  from 

all  sources  of  conviction  and  belief,  must  be  that  same 
kingdom  of  everlasting  blessedness. 

But  there  was  a  dream  in  that  unhappily  possessed 
doctor's  head,  a  monomaniacal  thought,  a  demon  idea, 
which  took  final  possession  of  the  whole  mind  and  heart  of 
its  victim.  The  vision,  with  its  accompanying  prayer, 
shaped  itself  in  this  form  : — Guardian  spirits  of  the  world  ! 
grant  the  power  to  construct  on  some  mountain-top,  some 
tall  "  heaven-kissed  hill,"  some  Alpine  height  of  the  earth's 
surface,  above  the  plain  of  perpetual  malaria,  a  hospital,  a 
sanitarium,  a  retreat  for  the  sick,  for  those  who  struggle  with 
disease  in  the  heated  plains  below,  or  in  the  poisoned  valleys : 
vouchsafe  this  power,  and,  with  the  remedial  virtues  of 
change  of  air,  climate,  water,  and  exercise,  and  the  instru- 
mentality of  the  resources  of  the  regular  art  of  healing,  there 
shall  be  results  in  the  sphere  of  physical  regeneration  yet 
undreamed  of  in  medical  philosophies.  Grant  this  power, 
answer  this  prayer,  and  judge  of  the  tree  by  its  fruit. 

It  will  be  easily  discernible  that  in  this  enterprise  there 
w^ould  be  an  enlarged  sphere  of  professional  power,  a  more 
extensive  range  of  observation  and  influence  than  a  village 
gave  in  the  world  of  disease;  with  less  expenditure  of 
animal  force,  less  exhaustion  of  the  animal  man,  in  the  pro- 
cess of  destroying  space  through  the  instrumentality  of  the 
horse  to  get  to  his  business,  which  makes  the  laborious  life 
and  certain  premature  death  of  the  country  practitioner. 
This  scheme  of  course  included  incidentally  (and  it  must 
be  acknowledged,  with  shame,  that  there  was  something  of 
selfishness  and  sin,  something  of  earthliness  and  cowardice, 
in  this)  an  escape  from  the  dismal  array  of  tortures  which 


22  PROLEGOMENON. 

only  the  country  doctor  knows  :  midnight  rides  of  dreary 
miles  in  snow  and  rain  storms;  lonely  struggling  with  the 
disorganizing  powers  of  the  world;  the  mournful  tragedy 
of  "death  life  overtaking"  in  the  woodman's  lonely  cabin, 
in  the  ploughman's  lowly  cot,  and  the  beggar's  filthy  sty ; 
also,  of  course,  the  constant  single-hand  fight  with  the  de- 
stroying angel,  with  none  of  the  band  of  true  brothers 
near,  and  the  fearful  responsibility  of  the  contract  to 
preserve  life  in  all  the  details  of  the  profession,  repre- 
senting every  department,  as  the  country  doctor  must,  and 
be  veritable  factotum  in  the  profession,  executing  the  insti- 
tutes of  surgery,  midwifery,  and  practice,  including,  at  the 
same  time,  the  arts  of  the  druggist,  dentist,  and  veterinary 
surgeon.  With  hard  work,  suffering,  distractions,  and  ago- 
nies, and  perhaps  the  worst  of  all  experiences  to  bear,  might 
be  included  the  angry  and  averted  face  when  asked  for  the 
"  quid  pro  quo"  for  saving  life,  or  the  FEE  for  services 
money  could  never  pay  for  executing,  and  which  only  a 
sense  of  duty  could  command  any  man  to  execute  at  all. 
To  escape  in  some  way  the  FULL  MEASURE  of  suffering 
of  a  country  practice,  the  extreme  agonies  and  dreary 
wastes  of  horror  of  a  country  doctor's  life,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  attain  the  clear  mountain-top  of  a  higher  force 
professional,  a  larger  range  of  power,  a  more  extensive 
sphere  in  which  to  develop  the  heavenly  functions  of  the 
art  of  healing;  in  short,  from  its  inception  the  enterprise 
has  been  nothing  but  an  enlarged  projection  of  the  country 
physician 's power  in  the  relief  of  suffering,  and  the  creation  of 
health  and  happiness.  A  doctorial  project  in  toto,  nursed 
in  the  heart  and  brain  for  years  of  patient  vigilance  and 
solicitude,  not  unmingled  (as  has  been  adverted  to  and 
acknowledged,  with  a  sense  of  shame)  with  the  more 
terrestrial  visions  of  a  better  way  to  the  dollar,  a  clearer 
track  than  the  thumb-screw  or  torture  process  of  extract- 
ing cents  by  forceps  from  the  pockets  of  patients,  and 
presenting  a  more  direct  route,  as  was  hoped,  to  compe- 
tency, (for  here  it  must  be  acknowledged,  with  sorrow  for 


PROLEGOMENON.  23 

humanity,  that  the  laborer  in  this  department  is  not  gene- 
rally considered  worthy  of  his  hire,  but  is  held  in  profane 
estimation, — fearful,  fatal  evidence  of  the  barbarism  of  the 
hour ! — as  a  vulgar  pill-peddler,  monkey -hunter,  or  swabber 
of  intestines,  who  should  find  in  the  mere  performance  of  the 
interesting  details  and  duties  of  his  profession  a  sufficient 
and  exceeding  great  reward  for  his  troubles,)  than  the 
forty-and-one  swops  of  chips  and  whetstones  in  eiforts  to 
touch  the  penny,  in  the  truck-trade  of  a  country  doctor's  bill- 
collecting  ;  practising  his  art,  as  supposed  by  his  patients, 
under  the  employment  of  the  commonwealth  or  Heaven, 
whilst  making  his  bread  by  his  wit  in  other  lines  of  business- 
operations,  as  in  the  intellectual  and  refined  manoeuvres 
of  trafficking  in  the  flesh  of  horses,  or  in  the  scarcely  more 
rational  efforts  of  making  brick  without  straw, — it  might  be, 
chimerical  experiments  in  the  fabrication  of  lumber  by 
steam :  in  short,  existing  by  the  wit  and  tricks  of  common! 
trade  or  huckstering,  and  discharging,  at  the  same  time,  the 
august  duties  of  the  medical  profession  for  the  pure,  un- 
mixed love  of  the  Father  of  all  and  his  wretched  children, 
the  suffering  human  family.  It  will  be  pardoned,  then,  in 
the  grand  scheme  of  benevolence  and  love  of  the  Moun- 
tain Sanatarium,  if  visions  of  some  royal  highroad  to  for- 
tune might  have  profanely  mingled  a  little.  Here  the 
unhappy  alas ! !  did  and  indeed  could  not  foresee  exactly 
^  whither  that  hallucination  might  lead  him,  even  into  waste 
spaces  and  vast  abysses  of  suffering  of  all  orders  and 
degrees,  but,  most  of  all,  into  heart-scaldings  and  sorrows, 
in  this  same  line  of  the  dollar,  its  treacheries  and  despot- 
isms. The  devil  seems  not  to  have  forgotten  his  ancient 
stratagem  of  trying  experiments  in  the  line  of  money-temp- 
tations on  tops  of  mountains,  or  of  attempting  to  get  the 
dollar,  (like  the  wedge  of  Achan,)  a  perpetual  element  of 
discord  and  death,  into  all  the  really  good,  benevolent,  and 
heavenly  operations  of  this  lower  world.  The  enterprise 
in  itself  involved  the  necessity  of  sundry  and  various 
rencounters  with  dangerous  creatures  of  the  financial  deeps, 


24  PROLEGOMENON. 

— awful  whales  and  sword-fish  of  those  hottomless  pits  and 
maelstroms  of  the  money-power,  including,  of  course,  inte- 
resting bouts  with  the  shark, — the  beautiful  shark, — who  is  the 
purest  and  most  perfect  symbol  and  representative  of  the 
poetic  and  ecstatic  lover  of  the  dollar  for  its  naked  beauty. 
The  whale  is  somewhat  peculiar  and  dainty  in  his  appetite 
and  shape  of  food,  (having  a  gourmand's  taste  for  the  "elio 
borealis,")  as  are  also  some  other  monsters  of  the  deep; 
but  that  omnivorous  glutton,  the  all-loving  shark,  swallows 
promiscuously — like  "Time,  the  hungry  hyena!" — every 
thing,  including  grossest  elements,  but  is  clearest  and  most 
emphatic  in  his  appreciation  and  epicurean  perception  of  the 
delicacy  of  human  flesh,  which,  like  that  kingly  rascal  the 
lion,  he  always  prefers.     Very  frequent  contact  with  this 
individual — all  teeth  andstomach — was  necessary  in  the  finan- 
cial  department  of  the  Sanatarium,  and  also,  of  course, 
with  his  friend  the  pilot-fish,  (scomber  ductor.)     This  is 
a  servile  but  faithful  retainer,  attendant,  and  slave  of  the 
shark,  who  is  supposed  to  scent  out  for  and  report  to  him 
the  secrets  of  the  ocean  on  the  subjects  of  garbage,  carrion, 
and  "grab-game"  in  general.     He  also  seems  to  exercise  a 
kind  of  guardianship   over  his   sharkish   excellency,  (an 
extremely  fallen  form  of  the  guardian   angel,)  attending 
him  assiduously,  protecting  him  from  dangers  of  all  kinds, 
fondling  with  him,  and  flattering  him  with  devotion.     Of 
this  fidelity  wonderful  instances  are  recorded,  as  in  the 
story  of  Captain  Richards,  of  the  Royal  JSTavy.     "A  shark, 
attracted  by  a  corpse  that  had  been  thrown  overboard,  fol- 
lowed the  vessel.     A  hook  was  baited  to  catch  him ;  but, 
in  the  language  of  the  captain,  the  shark,  attended  by  four 
pilot-fish,  repeatedly  approached  the  bait,  and  every  time 
that  he  did  so  one  of  the  pilots  preceding  him  was  distinctly 
seen  from  the  taffrail  of  the  ship  to  run  his  snout  against 
the  side  of  the  shark's  head  to  turn  it  away.     After  some 
further  play,  the  fish  swam  off  in  the  wake  of  the  vessel, 
his  dorsal  fin  being  long  distinctly  visible  above  the  water. 
When  he  had  gone  a  considerable  distance,  he  suddenly 


PROLEGOMENON.  25 

turned  around  and  darted  after  the  vessel,  and,  before  the 
pilot-fish  could  overtake  him  and  interpose,  snapped  at  tho 
bait,  and  was  taken.  In  hoisting  him  up,  one  of  the  pilots 
was  observed  to  cling  to  his  side  until  he  was  half  above 
water,  and  then  fall  off.  All  the  pilot-fish  then  swam  about 
for  a  while,  as  if  in  search  of  their  FRIEND,  with  every 
apparent  mark  of  anxiety  and  distress,  and  afterwards 
darted  suddenly  down  into  the  depths  of  the  sea." — Cu- 
VIER  Pisces,  p.  637. 

Wonderful  fidelity  and  devotion  of  pilot-fish  and  sharks, 
— far  transcending  the  affections  of  men, — clinging  together 
even  in  death ! 

Many  persons  may  know  a  few  singed  rats  of  pettifogging 
lawyers  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  who  would  here, 
with  their  usual  affectation  of  infallible  cat-smartness,  and 
real  cat  cunningness,  treachery,  and  unholdable  eel-sli mi- 
ness,  immediately  raise  the  question,  Was  it  real  love  that 
actuated  that  pilot-fish  to  hold  on  to  the  shark,  pure,  dis- 
interested personal  affection,  or  did  not  the  shark,  from  the 
evidence  of  some  of  the  facts  of  the  case,  (that  might  have 
been  adduced,)  or  presumption  in  the  case,  owe  the  pilot  a  fee? 
This  individual — the  pilot-fish — represents  with  miraculous 
and  transcendent  fidelity  the  legal  profession, — at  least  the 
small  fry  of  scaly  attorneys  always  found  bumping  their 
noses  obsequiously  around  the  shark,  or  money  man. 

Abundant  issues  with  this  fish  and  his  friend  the  shark 
were  destined  to  come  off,  and  in  due  course  of  time  came; 
but  all  this  was  inscrutably  hidden  in  the  future  from  the 
vision  of  that  unfortunate  doctor  lost  in  his  dreams.  Having 
faith  larger  than  a  bushel  of  mustard-seed  in  this  scheme 
of  a  Sanitarium,  moving  a  mountain  seemed  no  difficult 
affair.  Sequel  inevitable,  if  the  mountain  would  not  move — 
********** 

And  this,  very  unexpectedly  certainly,  brought  also  the 
great  tragical  issues  of  history  among  the  pine-roots  and 
rocks  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  and  gave  solemnity  and 
grandeur  to  the  apparently  contemptible  events  of  the  hour, 


26  PROLEGOMENON. 

to  wit:  the  man  and  his  scheme  of  benevolence  vs.  some 
institution  of  earth  under  the  genius  of  selfishness  and  sin; 
or,  it  might  be,  some  consolidated  power  of  darkness  and 
death,  of  other  ages,  of  other  worlds,  vs.  light  and  truth, 
hope  and  mercy,  progress  and  the  soul.  In  connection 
with  which,  as  a  totally  unpardonable  episode,  it  may  be 
remarked  that,  however  interesting  to  the  archaeologist  the 
history  of  the  Middle  Ages  may  be  in  the  organic  develop- 
ment of  the  family  of  man  as  the  unit  or  multiplex,  conser- 
vative or  radical,  progressive  or  retrospective,  to  meet  the 
Middle  Ages,  with  its  claws  and  scales,  its  tusks  and  bristles, 
in  the  lap  of  the  nineteenth  century,  with  the  warm,  genial, 
life-giving  sun  flashing  beauty,  fertility,  and  progress 
through  the  hard  old  rind  of  the  earth,  (the  arrow-marks 
pointing  forward !)  is  not  so  refreshing  to  the  soul  of  the 
man  whose  eifort  and  sympathies  are  with  the  present  hour, 
and  whose  hopes  and  aspirations  are  in  the  future. 

But  it  was  the  " previous  discourse"  to  the  forthcoming 
story  of  the  Mountain,  and  some  account  of  the  "  Sanitarium," 
that  was  being  indited,  and  not  a  dissertation  on  the  philo- 
sophy of  history,  or  even  tragical  glimpses  into  the  biography 
of  obscure  and  insignificant  personages,  forever  paltry  and 
pitiable,  forever  flat  and  mean,  stale  and  unprofitable,  the 
mere  record  of  earth-troubles,  conflicts  with  evil  spirits 
and  vulturous  men,  and  all  the  wearisome  details  of  that 
same  thrice  painful,  sober,  and  even  ghastly,  actual,  but  to 
which  the  philosopher  or  hero  cannot  allude,  and  of  which 
much  less  complain,  without  signal  loss  of  prestige  and 
divinity. 

It  scarcely  remains  to  be  determined,  now,  that  the 
establishment  of  a  Sanitarium  on  the  summit  of  the 
Alleghany  Mountains  is  not  an  impossible  dream,  delusion, 
or  folly,  but  a  glorious  substance  and  reality,  full  of  bless- 
ings for  suffering  man.  Can  it  be  said  to  be  premature  as 
a  project,  or  insane  as  an  idea?  does  it  fill  the  needs  of  the 
hour,  endorsed  by  common  sense?  and  is  it  to  be  furthered, 
advanced,  and  published  to  the  world,  in  the  proportions  of 


PROLEGOMENON.  27 

the  vision  in  the  soul,  as  a  success,  or  to  drop,  half  developed, 
half  made  up,  or  even  still-born,  into  the  silence  of  oblivion? 
As  a  project,  philanthropic,  benevolent,  and  at  first  sight 
not  having  in  it  the  bone  and  muscle  of  a  common  business- 
enterprise,  must  it  share  the  fate  of  all  efforts  to  bless,  re- 
generate, and  save  the  rebellious  savage,  man,  from  sin  and 
degradation,  disease  and  death?  Will  no  enterprise  live  on 
earth  for  the  good  of  humanity  unconnected  with  the 
curse  of  gain?  Will  men  endorse  nothing  but  projects  that 
have  three  per  cent,  a  month  in  them  secured  by  real  es- 
tate? Will  they  engage  heartily  in  nothing  except  the 
organization  and  creation  of  cunningly-devised  institutions 
to  catch  each  other,  and  by  which  the  head-man — the  cun- 
ning, sharp  man,  whose  symbol  is  the  fox — shall  subjugate 
the  hand-man,  or  innocent  "creator  in  the  finite,"  whose 
symbol  is  the  patient  ox  bowing  his  neck  to  the  yoke? 
And  in  a  world  that  has  been  praying  for  long  hundreds  of 
years  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  come,  that  the  Great 
Will  might  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  those  blissful  abodes, 
and  where  philosophers  and  prophets,  seers  and  saints, 
have  heralded  the  advent  of  all  orders  of  millenniums,  with 
the  reign  of  peace  and  good-will,  of  mercy  and  love, — will 
it  come  at  last  that  men  and  angels  shall  tremble  to  behold 
the  Dollar  "a  solitary  God,  over  ghastly  ruin  frowning 
forever  from  his  throne"  ?  Will  nothing  that  has  the  soul 
in  it  succeed  on  this  planet  ?  Have  men  SWORN  to  propa- 
gate evil  and  disease  only,  viciously  and  insanely  hazarding 
the  permanent  and  eternal  degradation  of  their  race  ?  Will 
no  human  being  try  the  experiment  of  publishing  a  clean 
and  normal  life  of  the  body  and  heavenly  life  of  the  soul, 
with  soundness  of  one,  and  some  disinterested  benevolence 
in  the  other?  Is  the  element  of  mutual  antagonism  and  self- 
ishness the  wax  that  sticks  and  holds  the  world  together, 
whilst  the  "love  of  the  neighbor,"  the  "self-denial  and  re- 
nunciation," the  kingdom  of  heaven  and  its  righteousness, 
which  are  always  to  be  FIRST,  are  antediluvian  fogyisms, 
too  slow  and  simple  for  the  rapidly-rushing  (progressive, 


28  PROLEGOMENON. 

as  they  are  called!}  man  and  social  compact  of  the  present 
hour? 

After  a  life  of  sorrowful  struggling  for  his  race,  the  me- 
lancholy Pestalozzi,  whose  formula  of  salvation  for  man  was 
universal  education,  was  forced  to  say,  ".I  learned  that  no 
man  in  God's  wide  earth  is  either  willing  or  able  to  help 
another  man."  The  good  and  honest  Sandy  Mackaye  was 
equally  unsuccessful,  during  his  pilgrimage,  in  finding  the 
heavenly  man.  He  says,  "  Dinna  spier  what  I  believe  in :  I 
canna  tell  ye.  I've  been  seventy  years  trying  to  believe  in 
God,  and  to  meet  anither  man  that  believed  in  him :  so  I 
am  just  like  the  Quaker  o'  the  town  o'  Kedcross,  that  met 
by  himsel'  every  first  day  in  his  ain  hoose."  The  good 
*  *  *  *  also  wails,  "I  have  hunted  in  vain  for  forty  years 
to  find  one  man  who  really  believed  in  God,  and  proved  it 
by  loving  his  neighbor  half  as  well  as  himself;  or  who 
would,  either  from  impulse  or  a  sense  of  duty,  do  any  thing 
for  his  brother  man  without  the  desire  of  being  paid  for  it." 
Terrestrial  croakers,  whose  abdomens  are  near  the  sod,  say 
that  no  project  that  had  in  it  either  benevolence  or  love 
ever  succeeded  at  all,  or  was  ever  enjoyed  or  realized  by  its 
author;  that  the  wicked  are  sure  to  reap  the  crops  and 
harvest  the  labor  of  the  righteous;  and  that  satanic  spirits 
have  still  their  ancient  desire  to  crawl  into  paradises  pre- 
pared for  angels  and  men.  Passing  strange  and  inconceiv- 
able seem  the  decrees  of  the  Eternal.  Did  it  really  require 
the  martyrdom  of  the  Divine  Carpenter  to  found  a  "CHRIS- 
TENDOM," with  safe  and  comfortable  sea-room,  in  which 
money  dragons  alone  could  flourish, — (the  only  order  of 
creatures  he  hated  whilst  upon  earth,) — and  has  it  veritably 
come  to  pass  that  "the  sole  bond  between  man  and  man 
is  cash  payment,"  that  the  highest  achievements  of  civi- 
lization are  the  issues  of  money  vs.  love,  money  vs.  virtue, 
money  vs.  blood,  and  money  vs.  the  soul,  and  that  money, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver  given  to  the 
only  sharp  business-man  of  the  Twelve,  always  must  win, 
whilst  the  noble  endowments  of  generosity  and  faith  in 


PROLEGOMENON.  29 

man,  and  the  divine  instinct  of  self-sacrifice,  necessarily 
become  curses  amidst  the  treacheries  and  villanies  of  men, 
and  that  the  philanthropist  must  forever  continue  to  bleed 
in  the  future,  as  he  has  done  in  the  past,  for  the  good  of 
mankind  ? 

The  Mountain  Sanitarium,  with  its  overtures  of  healing 
and  salvation,  must  not  subtend  this  fatal  angle,  must 
not  succumb  to  the  evil  genius  of  humanity,  must  not 
postpone  its  promises  of  joy  to  the  reign  of  baleful  en- 
chantments, or  be  profaned  by  vulgarity  and  sin  to  gross 
and  common  purposes.  The  faithful  have  trusted  that  this 
could  never  be;  but  sometimes,  especially  in  the  disastrous 
approach  of  the  recent  oscillations  of  the  earthquake- wave 
which  has  shivered  the  crust  of  the  financial  world,  some- 
what cracked  and  tottering,  partially  eclipsed,  hid  slightly 
in  the  signless  Inane,  were  its  fate  and  destiny. 

In  the  mean  time,  with  great  suffering,  great  results  have 
been  achieved,  jostlings  and  difficulties  have  occurred  and 
been  transcended,  rough  and  ugly  places  in  the  road  have  been 
passed,  fierce  battles  have  been  fought  with  the  sordid  and 
benighted,  especially  in  that  howling  wilderness  of  doleful 
things  called  "  The  Law."  This,  of  course,  necessitated 
occasional  contact  and  companionship  (followed,  as  ever, 
by  somewhat  disastrous  results)  with  common  publicans 
and  sinners,  also  frequently  the  more  agreeable  communion 
with  those  inspirers  of  hope  and  solid  rocks  of  anchorage 
for  the  troubled,  the  members  of  the  legal  profession,  to  be 
followed  by  vast  but  somewhat  questionable  spiritual  ex- 
pansions, inseparable  from  intercourse  with  this  order  of 
beings,  including  numberless  developments  of  the  vulpine 
instincts  and  marauding  faculties,  (omitting,  fortunately, 
to  the  great  joy  of  the  guardian  angel  of  one  soul,  the 
horrors  of  euchre,  cigars,  and  snuff, — three  of  the  highest 
intellectual  indulgences  and  moral  disciplines  of  this  guild,) 
coming  as  fruit  natural  and  inevitable  of  the  tuition  of 
renowned  barristers  carrying  the  culture  and  light,  tlie 
sharpness  and  wisdom,  of  ages  in  their  heads,  as  well  as 


80  PROLEGOMENON. 

with  smaller  fish  of  the  same  scale,  who  carry  the  still  more 
enormous  weight  of  their  own  self-sufficiency. 

Thus  it  has  come  that  wheel-within-wheel-to-the-infinite 
difficulties  of  legal  labyrinths  have  been  threaded  through ; 
gordian  knots,  twisted  by  legal  quibblers,  have  been  un- 
tied, or  cut  through,  by  legal  gentlemen;  crotchet  within 
crotchet,  dead  fall  below  dead  fall,  of  small-potato  attorney- 
logic  have  been  dissected  to  the  light  of  day,  and  whole 
nests  of  vipers'  eggs  destroyed.  Yerily,  this  entirely  fas- 
cinating game  of  eels  in  the  mud,  of  bore  vs.  boree,  plucker 
vs.  pluckee,  in  all  its  exquisite  details,  has  been  agonizingly 
squirmed  and  wriggled  through.  This  involved  frequent 
and  ferocious  skirmishes  before  that  august  potentate,  the 
country  justice  of  the  peace,  a  gorgeous  but  fatal  Jugger- 
naut, in  whose  presence,  and  compared  with  whose  over- 
whelming consciousness  of  grandeur  and  assumption  of 
power  and  self-importance,  all  forms  of  the  tyrant  man 
submerge  instantly.  Then  came  the  more  formidable 
array  of  the  regular  legal  battle  of  saws,  coming  down 
from  the  ancients,  from  other  men,  under  other  forms  of 
government,  under  other  circumstances,  and  in  other 
conditions  of  human  society,  but  still  with  the  solemnity 
and  awful  paraphernalia  of  obsolete  abstractions  and  dusty 
rags  of  the  graves  of  buried  formulae,  under  the  over- 
shadowing dignity  of  the  presidency  of  courts  and  juries,  in 
the  assumption  of  the  administration  of  that  attribute  of  the 
Eternal  called  Justice.  This  sublime  consummation  upon 
earth  is  supposed  to  be  fully  attained  and  executed  when 
twelve  bean-bags — that  is,  twelve  drowsy  men,  rudimen- 
tary, unlettered,  with  half-born  spiritual  bodies,  faculties 
still  in  chaos,  but  with  their  natural  bodies  stuffed  with 
sour-crout,  pork,  and  beans,  ruminating  upon  tobacco- 
quids,  and  moping  like  melancholy  owls  over  a  frog-pond — 
are  squeezed  into  a  jury-box,  and  are  silently  and  grandly 
brooded  over  by  a  trinity  of  buzzards,  also  with  gorged 
stomachs,  sleeping  profoundly  on  a  roost  called  "the 
Judges'  Bench,"  whilst  the  kennel  of  dogs,  "  hell-hounds 


PROLEGOMENON.  31 

of  justice,"  mongrel  pups  and  "curs  of  low  degree,"  are 
permitted  to  snarl,  snap  their  teeth,  and  howl, — the  crowd 
of  fascinated  spectators  around  this  kennel  in  the  mean 
time  being  kept  under  abeyance  by  that  magical  wand, 
the  pole  of  the  tipstaff.  This  is  salvation  through  tht* 
intellect  and  morale  of  the  jury-box  and  bench,  in  legal  par- 
lance yclept  Courts  of  Judicatory,  supposed  to  be  a  close 
adumbration  to  the  modus  operandi  of  the  Divine  Being  in 
his  jurisdiction  of  the  Universe,  and  consequently  the  most 
infallible  mode  of  adjusting  difficulties  between  man  and 
man,  and  the  grandest  achievement  of  that  highest  and 
last  phasis  of  development  or  expansion  of  the  human 
race  called  civilization,  and  of  whose  duration  forever 
there  is  no  doubt  in  any  lawyer's  head,  or  despair  in  his 
stomach. 

Through  this  dismal  swamp  of  juridical  solecisms  years 
have  been  sadly  and  mournfully  wandered  away,  the  blind 
leading  the  blind  an  agonizing  exodus  through  dreary 
wastes  of  deserts,  in  the  vain  and  futile  effort  as  potter  in 
that  wretched  "  quicksilver,  human  clay ;"  also  at  squaring 
circles,  making  hills  without  hollows,  and  other  impossi- 
bilities to  God  himself,  including  interesting  endeavors  at 
"  shovelling  sunshine  into  shade  upon  a  rainy  day •"  but, 
most  absurd  of  all,  the  effort  to  get,  by  any  earthly  appli- 
ance or  manoeuvre  yet  invented,  a  bona-fide  dollar's  worth 
of  work  for  three  actual  dollars  paid,  out  of  any  private  or 
even  commissioned  officer  of  the  rascally  brigade  of  the 
army  of  refractory  Caucasian  men  (no  division  of  the 
more  tractable  African  forces  extending  in  that  direction) 
operating  in  the  wilderness  which  was  to  be  made  to  blos- 
som as  the  rose.  Add  to  these  abortive  efforts  also  "  will- 
o'-the-wisp"  hunts  to  get  some  solid  points  of  fixity  in 
the  bottomless  quagmires  and  quicksand-under-quicksand 
uncertainties  of  Alleghany  Mountain  land-titles,  with  fre- 
quent results  in  the  highly-interesting  neighborhood  of 
ZERO,  and  also  with  occasional  culminations  truly  astonish- 
ing to  all  rational  beings, — even  decisions  of  Supreme  Courts 


J2  PROLEGOMENON. 

and  "venire  de  novos."  To  this  classical  gymnastics  of 
the  soul,  "  bleeding  footprints  to  the  temple  of  perfection/' 
all  absolutely  necessary  to  develop  a  "man  of  'cute  parts 
and  polished  understanding,"  called  a  "business-man," 
ADD  wear  and  tear  of  heart,  crucifixion  of  sensibility,  dis- 
appointment and  despair,  making  life  a  "  galling  load,  a 
long,  a  rough,  a  weary  road,"  from  the  enormous  promises 
of  friendship,  the  dwarfish  and  ignominious  failure,  the 
seductive  ideal,  the  INFERNAL  REAL,  the  cold  water  of  the 
faithless  perpetually  dropping,  the  gross  weight  of  sand- 
bags constantly  dragging  downwards,  the  brutal  defama- 
tion of  malignant  and  unprincipled  enemies,  venomous 
scorpions,  poisoning  the  air  and  putting  obstructions  in 
the  path,  turning  life's  wine  to  vinegar,  its  milk  to  gall; 
whilst  a  crowd  of  infidels  to  the  progressive  expansion  of 
the  universe  have  appeared  in  the  arena  with  averted  faces, 
shrivelled  hearts,  and  fists  eternally  shut  upon  the  penny, — 
wretches  without  faith  or  hope,  but  with  the  snout  of  a 
grovelling  selfishness  held  fast  in  the  mire  of  the  earth. 
And  then  there  came  in  due  course  of  heavenly  experiences 
the  play  of  that  lovely  instinct  which  man  possesses  in 
common  with  inferior  animals,  with  whom  he  still  delights 
to  "  hold  his  bonds  of  ancient  alliance/'  and  which  is  con- 
stantly observable  in  herds  of  buffalo  and  deer,  more  especi- 
ally in  packs  of  wolves, — that,  with  the  first  appearance  of  a 
limp  in  an  unfortunate  brother,  the  whole  herd  attack  and 
destroy  without  mercy  the  wretch  who  dares  to  be  lame. 
It  is  also  said  to  be  true  that  "  in  the  woods  the  leopard 
knows  his  kind,  the  tiger  preys  not  on  the  tiger's  brood, 
and  that  man  only  is  the  uncompromising  foe  of  man." 
"For  our  enemies  God  keeps  a  standing  army:  we  can 
manage  them :  but  may  the  merciful  Heavens  protect  and 
defend  us  from  our  friends!" 

Was  the  glory  or  wretchedness,  the  majesty  or  meanness, 
of  the  universe  to  unveil  itself  to  the  soul  ?  was  fate  intent 
upon  developing  a  misanthrope  or  unfolding  a  philan- 
thropist? was  love  or  hate  finally  to  prevail?  Why  the 


PROLEGOMENON.  83 

Alleghany  Mountain  was  to  become  a  Golgotha  or  place  oi 
skulls,  to  be  wandered  sadly  through,  instead  of  "  a  pleasant 
walk  across  the  fields  of  barley;"  why,  the  torments  of 
death  were  given  as  a  reward  for  pursuing  benevolent 
aspirations ;  why  gall  and  wormwood  were  added  in  such 
profusion,  and  "mene  tekel"  was  written  over  so  much 
of  human  nature  that  appeared  divine,  so  much  that 
SEEMED  AMBROSIAL  AND  ETERNAL;  and  why,  with  the  threat- 
ened down-rushing  of  material  interests,  the  spiritual 
should  fail,  and  friendship,  love,  even  common  sym- 
pathy, should  totter  and  pale,  should  fade  away  and 
perish,  and  despair  would  come  to  be  the  only  comforter, 
— must  ever  remain  somewhat  inexplicable  to  the  purblind 
sinner  charitably  supposed  to  be  still  in  the  gall  of  bitter- 
ness and  the  bonds  of  iniquity. 

Have  any  of  your  friends,  when  you  intimated  the  need 
of  a  favor,  turned  a  cold  shoulder  to  you  and  said,  "No;  it 
serves  you  right :  you  ought  never  to  have  tasted  whisky" — 
perhaps  emphasizing  some  other  peccadillo  having  exist- 
ence only  in  their  imaginations, — -justifying  their  brutal 
heartlessness  by  an  agile  dodge,  the  reference  to  your 
supposed  infirmities  being  made  with  an  evident  chuckle 
of  self-gratulation  ?  These,  you  will  find,  are  of  the  orna- 
mental form  of  the  genus  amicus  or  friend;  elegant  fellows 
for  sunshiny  days,  harvest-homes,  and  good  times :  they 
grow  on  every  bough.  The  tough  old  human  blood-and-soul 
form,  sound  through  weal  and  woe,  through  good  and  bad 
report,  to  the  bitter  end  loving  and  blessing,  is  not  so 
abundant,  but  still  extant, — a  rare  bird,  alas ! — but  on 
hand  occasionally  for  the  "  tug  and  the  tussle,"  thanks  to 
the  great  God  of  the  gods.  "Is  it  in  mere  death  that  men 
die  most?"  Does  it  not  come  as  bitterest  mockery  that 
"  The  beautiful  seems  right 

By  force  of  beauty ;  and  the  feeble  wrong 

By  cause  of  weakness," 

and  that 
"  Power  is  justified, 

Though  arm'd  against  St.  Michael"  ? 
3 


34  PROLEGOMENON. 

It  were  vain,  perhaps,  to  inquire  just  what  ARE  the  ulti- 
mate moral  expansions  derived  from  the  experiences  of 
ingratitude, — a  savage  axe  to  the  root  of  the  natural  man, 
it  seems,  but  hardest  of  all  to  bear,  and  without  redress 
except  the  brute's  joy  of  vindictiveness  and  revenge. 

"  The  world  well  known  will  give  our  hearts  to  God, 
Or  make  us  devils,  long  before  we  die." 

Ingratitude  is  the  crime  of  fiends,  and  stands  alone,  ab- 
horred by  the  meanest  worm  as  well  as  angel  and  man.  In 
the  thirty-ninth  Olympiad,  Dracon  the  Athenian  instituted 
a  code  of  laws  so  exceedingly  rigorous  that  Herodicus  and 
Damades  remarked  that  "his  laws  were  not  those  of  a  man, 
but  a  dragon,  [dpaxwv,']  and  that  they  were  not  written  in 
ink,  but  in  blood."  Nevertheless,  this  Dracon  was  a  sensible 
man;  and  although  his  name  is  proverbially  associated 
with  laws  considered  vindictive  and  brutal,  yet  for  the 
NEEDS  of  the  age  they  were  perfect, — his  laws  being,  in  his 
own  words,  "  instruments  for  appeasing  the  anger  of  the  Gods, 
moral  guilt  being  the  sole  rule  of  punishment/' 

Some  of  his  enactments  should  be  in  all  codes  to  this 
hour,  and  are  certainly  divine.  He  made  the  punishment 
of  ingratitude  death,  feeling  in  his  soul  that  eternal  truth, — 

"  And  still  on  the  words  of  the  bard  keep  a  fix'd  eye, 
"Ingratum  si  dixeris  omnia  dixti,'" — 

knowing  surely  that  the  man  who  was  capable  of  IN- 
GRATITUDE was  capable  of  all  crime,  and,  ipso  facto,  worthy 
of  death. 

This  is  a  verdict  of  the  soul,  and  forever  right.  The  laws 
of  the  present  moment,  in  their  blind  and  stupid  groping 
after  justice,  scarcely  knowing  right  hand  from  left,  take 
fierce  revenge  for  the  stealing  of  the  purse ;  but  for  the 
stealthy  stab  of  the  GOOD  NAME,  or  the  treacherous,  silent 
assassination  of  the  trusting,  sleeping  heart,  they  have  no 
prison  or  death.  They  make  honorable  restitution  to  the 
maltreated  dollar,  but  for  faith  destroyed  in  a  brother  man's 
character  have  no  atonement, — "  taking  savage  cognizance  of 


PROLEGOMENON.  35 

the  dagger  which  slays  the  body,  but  having  no  retribution 
for  the  murder  of  the  soul."  The  wise  Dracon  went 
behind  the  act,  and  saw  in  the  fountain  of  the  spirit  the 
true  causal  force  of  all  acts,  the  true  origin  of  all  crimes, 
the  perverted  elements  of  fallen  humanity ;  and,  as  the  man 
who  was  capable  of  ingratitude  was  capable  of  any  crime,  he 
punished  it  with  death.  Sound ! 

The  human  family  have  suifered  ever  since  the  repeal  of 
this  code  of  Dracon.  If  virtue  is  really  its  own  reward  in 
the  regular  decrees  of  the  Eternal,  it  would  seem  diabo- 
lical bribery  and  treachery  to  permit  a  crime  so  atrocious 
as  ingratitude  to  escape  condemnation  and  wrath ;  and  for 
the  law-maker  of  this  time  to  pass  it  over  without  some 
fearful  penalty  is  to  endorse  the  iniquity  of  Satan,  the  ene- 
mies of  man,  and  the  powers  that  struggle  to  destroy  the 
world. 

From  all  of  which  conflicting  chaoses  and  diabolical  ex- 
periences came  there  no  fruits,  came  there  no  achieve- 
ments, no  results,  and  was  it  all  suffering?  Were  there 
no  sequestered  spots  by  the  dusty  wayside  in  this  struggle, 
no  fresh  and  dewy  meads  of  hope  and  consolation,  no 
"  fair  Rosetta  vales,"  with  sparkling  waters,  where  the  soul 
could  rest  for  a  weary  hour,  "the  world  forgetting,  by 
the  world  forgot"  ?  Have  there  been  no  progressive  friends 
to  encourage,  no  souls  of  "  faith,  hope,  and  charity"  to 
inspire  confidence,  no  lovers  of  the  light  and  beauty  of  Na- 
ture to  whisper  the  peace  of  sympathy?  Have  there  been 
no  BELIEVERS  in  the  rationality  and  good  sense  of  this  heal- 
ing project,  of  this  healing  world  ?  Has  the  Mountain  not 
told  its  story  of  fate  already  ?  Have  not  the  pale  faces  of 
suffering  infants  been  made  radiant  ?  have  not  the  counte- 
nances of  jaded  and  overworked  men  become  bright  and 
hopeful,  whilst  bleached  and  bloodless  women  have  been 
made  to  bloom  with  life  and  strength  from  its  health- 
founts,  and  the  ends  of  the  great  u  primary  antagonism  of 
the  world,"  or  that  of  "spirit  and  matter,"  of  " centre  and 
periphery,"  of  that  lofty  and  "heavenly  irradiation"  in 


36  PROLEGOMENON. 

which  the  mystery  of  creation  lies  concealed,  have  been 
beautifully  consummated  ? 

In  this  protracted  struggle  to  achieve  a  great  and  bene- 
ficent end  has  there  been  no  support  of  the  wise  and 
generous,  have  there  been  no  receivers  of  the  truths  of 
righteousness,  sound  men  and  good,  spirits  of  faith  and 
friendship,  hearts  of  confidence  and  trust?  To  say  so 
would  be  to  ignore  the  majesty  of  man,  the  brightest  and 
purest  experiences  of  existence  in  genuine  friendship  and 
sympathy,  and  to  perpetrate  a  libel  upon  the  wisdom  and 
goodness  of  the  Infinite  unpardonable  forever. 

And  here  justice  demands  that  a  few  statements  shall 
be  made,  "  contrary  to  all  experience,  and  yet  true,"  but  so 
entirely  incredible  that  some  explanation  might  seem  to 
be  required,  as  all  transcendental  affirmations  at  first  hear- 
ing are  insane.  Unutterably  astonishing,  then,  and  pass- 
ing all  understanding,  as  it  may  appear,  especially  to  small 
politicians  of  the  "genus  croaker,"  even  a  Corporation  with 
a  soul  has  been  found,  a  colossal  sea-serpent  with  human 
blood  in  its  veins  and  a  human  heart  beating  beneath  its 
scaly  ribs.  And,  what  may  be  equally — nay,  still  more — 
astounding,  in  the  representative  man,  the  very  "  figure- 
head" of  this  "monster  monopoly,"  (favorite  phrase  in 
political  bugbear-twaddle,)  instead  of  the  poison-fangs  of 
the  copper-head,  the  claws  of  the  tiger,  or  the  hide  of  the 
rhinoceros,  there  have  been  found  firm  and  gentle  man- 
hood, wisdom  and  rectitude,  honor  and  friendship,  philan- 
thropy, and  world-wide,  generous,  humanitary  sympathies. 
All  of  which  would  fix  emphatically  a  new  and  significant 
sign  of  the  times,  an  augury  auspicious,  carrying  hope  and 
inspiration  to  the  humble  and  humane  workers  in  the 
vineyard  of  the  Lord,  with  the  assurance  that  the  dollar  is 
not  yet  entirely  under  the  influence  of  the  devil.  This  cor- 
poration, which  has  been  howled  against  by  hungry  and 
disappointed  politicians  as  an  immeasurable  sponge,  into 
whose  interstices  the  commonwealth  was  to  be  suddenly 
absorbed,  but  the  existence  of  which  the  historian  and 


PROLEGOMENON.  37 

statistician  will  record  as  a  high-water  mark  of  progress, 
and  its  achievements  the  crowning  glory  of  the  State, 
seems  now  to  have  become  (strangely  enough  to  the  ravens 
who  croaked)  a  steadfast  anchor,  a  haven  of  safety,  in  the 
reign  of  financial  chaos,  amidst  the  down-rushing  frag- 
ments of  shivered  commercial  balloons,  exploded  paper 
simulacra,  and  moribund  formulae  of  the  dollar.  This  benefi- 
cent monopoly, — surely  with  persistent  energy  and  wisdom, 
has  achieved  one  of  the  wonders  of  its  age,  perforating  and 
cleaving  mountains  as  by  the  fabled  throes  of  the  Titans, 
filling  and  bridging  valleys  as  by  the  cosmical  masonry  of 
the  Cyclops,  making  smooth  the  rough  and  straight  the 
crooked  ways,  carrying  that  "magician-wand"  the  rail- 
road-bar, realized  dream  of  the  fires  and  forges  of  Yulcan, 
from  the  tide  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  into  the  great  interior 
Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  by  the  labor  of  armies  of  men 
and  horses  and  cost  of  millions  of  dollars,  climbing  an 
accumulated  elevation  of  thousands  of  feet  through  an 
endless  range  of  rugged  hills  and  heights  separated  by  deep- 
washed  ravines  and  valleys,  thus  inviting  the  East  and  the 
West  to  foregather  and  unite  hands  in  the  commercial  mar- 
riage of  two  sides  of  a  continent  on  the  great  culminating- 
crest  of  the  Appalachian  chain.  This  power,  directed  by 
the  far-reaching  sagacity  and  transcendent  business  tact 
of  a  distinguished  Chief,  endorsed  by  the  characteristic 
philanthropy  of  the  City  of  Friends,  with  zeal  forever 
alive  and  intelligent,  has  caught  the  significance  of  the 
Alleghany  Mountain  as  the  site  of  an  Institution  full  of 
promise  to  suffering  man,  securing  all  points  of  interest 
and  beauty,  and  representing  all  elements  of  life  and 
health,  as  a  great  magazine  of  conservative  power  antago- 
nizing the  destroying  influences  of  the  city  and  offering 
bodily  renovation  and  soundness  in  opposition  to  disease 
and  death,  and  promised,  with  open  eye,  heart,  and  hand, 
TO  extend  a  generous  help  to  the  "Mountain  Sanitarium," 
and  say  to  the  enemies  of  Heaven  and  humanity,  in  their 


38  PROLEGOMENON. 

efforts  to  postpone  forever  the  advent  of  the  perfections 
and  felicities,  Thus  far  shalt  tlwu  go,  and  no  farther. 

Having  waved  a  charitable  and  tender  farewell  (after 
the  cheap  and  accidental  contracts  of  the  hour)  to  the 
parasites  who  flattered  and  fawned,  sucked  blood,  and 
then  betrayed  the  confidence  of  friendship, — to  the  knaves 
who  crawled  in  to  plunder,  and,  like  the  frozen  viper  of  the 
fable,  thawed  to  life,  stung  FIRST  the  breast  that  WARMED 
THEM, — to  the  ignoble  and  cruel,  upon  whose  heads  rests  the 
curse  of  ingratitude, — to  the  oblique  and  sinister  "  slimy 
things  that  crawl  with  legs/'  who  have  been  guilty  of 
treason  to  the  amenities  of  life  and  assassination  of  the 
holiest  instincts  of  humanity,  not  to  speak  of  flagrant 
infractions  of  the  laws  of  common  honesty,  consequently 
whose  moral  elements  are  chaos,  treachery,  and  death, — the 
consolation  comes  in  the  discovery  of  the  angelic  society 
in  which  sufferers  and  victims  of  the  machinations  of  evil 
spirits  are  always  found;  that  it  is  good  to  be  hated  by 
the  mean  and  cowardly,  that  rats  and  reptiles  by  affinity 
love  rats  and  reptiles,  and  bad  men  by  attraction  mix  with 
bad  men,  good  with  good. 

Then  it  is  WELL  for  the  obscure  and  humble,  the  vilified 
and  despitefully-used,  to  reflect  that  true  benefactors  and 
lovers  of  the  race  have  always  been  the  targets  for  the 
HATERS  and  the  malignant;  that  all  men  cursed  with  the 
self-sacrificing  impulses  of  the  soul  and  zeal  for  realizing 
ideals  must  continue  to  suffer  as  the  martyrs  of  faith, 
science,  and  sentiment  of  all  ages  have  done. 

The  great  and  good  Linnaeus,  in  his  scientific  labors 
for  the  well-being  of  man,  made  the  confession,  "I  must 
surely  admit  that,  as  I  have  wandered  [in  scientific  pur- 
suits] through  the  forests  of  the  world,  the  monkeys 
[meaning  ignorant  and  wicked  men]  have  constantly 
grinned,  chattered  their  teeth,  and  laughed  at  my  efforts, 
even  throwing  stones  and  clubs  at  me :  still  was  I  happy, — 
knowing  that  I  did  a  good  thing,  and  that  the  world  even 
would  approve,  when  it  LEARNED  TO  UNDERSTAND." 


PROLEGOMENON.  39 

Aftei  all,  it  would  surely  be  a  broken-hearted  and 
mournful  man  who  could  say,  All  men  are  bad;  I  hate  them 
all  and  distrust  the  world  :  I  have  fought  for  long  years 
ferociously  the  doctrine  of  total  depravity,  but  at  last  I  sur- 
render. "There  is  none  that  doeth  good,  no,  not  one." 
"  Behold,  I  was  shapen  in  iniquity,  and  in  sin  did  my 
mother  conceive  me." 

"  There  is  no  man  of  Nature's  worth 
In  the  circle  of  the  earth ; 
And  to  mine  eye  the  vast  skies  fall, 
Dire  and  satirical, 
On  clucking  hens  and  prating  fools, 
On  thieves,  on  drudges,  and  on  dolls. 
And  I  can  say  to  the  Most  High, 
'  Godhead  !  all  this  astronomy, 
And  fate,  and  practice,  and  invention, 
Strong  -art,  and  beautiful  pretension, 
This  radiant  pomp  of  sun  and  star, 
Throes  that  were,  and  worlds  that  are, 
Behold !  are  in  vain,  and  in  vain  ; 
And  Nature  has  miscarried  wholly 
Into  failure,  into  folly.'  " 

Rather  say  to  this  disconsolate  and  hopeless  soul, — 

"Alas!  THINE  is  the  bankruptcy 
Blessed  Nature  so  to  see." 

Having  no  heroic  determination  on  hand  seriously  to 
reinstitute  the  WHOLE  code  of  Dracon,  but  only  that  enact- 
ment punishing  ingratitude  with  death, — having  no  essay 
to  write  on  "  original  sin"  or  the  refreshing  and  ambrosial 
doctrine  of  "  eternal  reprobation,"  no  additions  to  offer  to 
the  Ten  Commandments,  (unless  it  might  be  that  eleventh 
commandment  suggested  by  the  progress  and  NEEDS  of  the 
times,  and  which,  critically  considered,  is  the  sum  and  sub- 
stance of  all  the  rest, — viz. :  Thou  shalt  attend  to  thine  own 
business  and  allow  thy  neighbor  to  attend  to  his;  for  the 
Lord  thy  God  hath  sometimes  made  rich  those  who  were 
found  attending  to  their  own  concerns,  but  will  not  bless 


40  PROLEGOMENON. 

with  prosperity,  or  even  hold  guiltless,  sinners  who  give 
themselves  exclusively  to  the  affairs  of  their  neighbors,) 
— having  no  ambition  to  improve  the  "  sayings  of  the  Seven 
Wise  Men  of  Greece"  or  "  the  similitudes  of  Demophilus," 
— having  no  patent-extension  reforms  to  suggest  to  the 
morals  or  maxims  of  Confucius,  including  the  "  eighteen 
sacred  edicts  of  the  Chinese"  no  hydrostatic  force  or  ele- 
ments of  gravity  and  decorum  to  offer  to  the  oracles  of 
Zoroaster,  or  special  wrinkles  of  sanctity  to  impose  upon 
the  theology  of  the  Phoenicians,  or  even  scientific  critiques 
to  make  on  the  "Cosmogony  of  Sanchoniatho,"  or  poetical 
splurges  on  "the  moral  grandeur  and  sublimity  of  the 
Bhagvat-Geeta,"  and  especially  no  additional  wailings  to 
affix  to  the  "Lamentations  of  Jeremiah,"  much  less  "  Odes 
to  Dejection  to  compose,"  not  to  speak  of  alligators'  eggs 
either  to  break  or  hatch,  or  rats  to  pet  or  poison, — but  only 
a  few  RESPONSIVE  SHOUTS  to  make  from  the  Alleghany 
Mountain  top  in  answer  to  numerous  inquiries : — Where 
are  you  ?  what  are  you  about  ?  HOW  did  you  GET  THERE  ? 
what  ENDS  do  you  propose?  what  have  you  DONE?  what 
particular  landing  does  the  Infinite  expect  to  make 
through  YOUR  manipulations  on  the  Appalachians  ?  and 
how  do  you  THINK,  really,  you  are  making  out  yourself? 

Let  it  be  resolved  that  dogs,  as  it  is  their  nature  too, 
"  shall  delight  to  bark  and  bite;"  that  Satans  shall  howl  their 
rages  out;  that  because  things  are  so  they  shall  be  so,  and  not 
otherwise;  that  ancient  feminines  shall  continue  to  drink 
tea  and  say  what  they  please  about  their  neighbors;  and 
that  "little  men  with  little  souls  shall  still  say,  Little  souls, 
let  us  try,  try," — not  forgetting  that,  "  till  you  hedge  in 
the  sky,  starlings  will  fly,  and  evil  tongues  will  not  refrain 
from  God  himself." 

And,  further,  let  it  be  resolved  that  there  is  a  wide  dif- 
ference between  the  heaven-intoxicated  victim  of  a  beauti- 
ful dream  full  of  benign  promises  and  good  ends  to  man, 
and  efforts  to  carry  them  out  by  the  organization  and  con- 
struction of  hospitals  and  institutions  of  learning,  and 


PROLEGOMENON.  41 

being  the  author  of  man-traps  baited  with  whisky  and 
fun,  operating  as  a  vulgar  builder  on  the  common  prin- 
ciples of  money  speculations,  of  taverns,  hotels,  or  summer 
resorts  for  brandy-suckers  and  hunters  of  good  times,  or 
bear-pens  for  the  regular  worship  of  the  devil. 

And,  further,  that  the  space  is  infinitely  extended  between 
the  physician,  or  healing  man,  set  apart  by  the  sacredness 
of  his  calling  from  the  ordinary  motives  and  pursuits  of 
men,  with  his  prayers  for  the  suffering,  and  his  aspirations 
to  cure  the  sick  and  infirm,  to  save  men  from  disease  and 
death  and  give  them  comfort  and  health,  and  the  profane 
stuffer  of  the  human  intestine  with  vulgar  viands  barba- 
rously tortured,  and  poisonous  liquors  villanously  com- 
pounded, the  whole  system  promulgated  on  the  common 
tricks  of  the  trade  of  the  most  profitable  and  economical 
feeding  and  swelling  of  swine  for  money  alone ;  and  espe- 
cially must  it  be  entirely  obvious,  even  to  a  "  wayfaring 
man,  though  a  fool,"  that  said  physician,  or  projector  of 
Hospitals  or  Healing  Institutions  as  part  of  the  special 
strategy  of  the  regular  profession  of  medicine  in  its  efforts 
to  surround  the  Author  of  evil  and  his  "regiments  of 
the  line/'  must  be  immeasurably  removed  from  the  shadow 
of  suspicion  of  being  implicated,  or  in  any  way  compro- 
mised, as  a  stool-pigeon,  or  decoy-duck,  for  the  seduction 
or  inveiglement  of  friends  particularly,  and  the  world  in 
general,  into  said  whisky-traps  or  pigeon-nets,  to  be  plucked 
by  the  vandal  man-feeders  of  the  same. 

Episode  unpardonable  No.  2.  Have  you  ever  approached, 
with  burning  throat  and  parched  lips,  a  clear,  cool,  mountain- 
spring  to  take  a  drink,  when — bolt ! — a  bull-frog  pitches  into 
the  spring,  and  kicks,  squirms,  and  flounders  round  until 
the  clear  spring  is  a  mud-puddle,  and  in  your  agonies  you 
see  nothing  but  muddy  water  to  mock  your  thirst  ?  You 
ask,  What  is  he  after?  why  muddy  the  whole  spring?  Hia 
frogship  is  simply  endeavoring  to  CONCEAL  by  the  mud  he 
stirs  up  his  ugly  form,  and  spoil  the  spring  for  your  use, 
supposing,  no  doubt,  that  the  spring  belongs  to  him.  The 


42  PROLEGOMENON. 

man-feeders,  or  rather  man-eaters,  of  the  "  Health  Institute" 
have  thus  far  followed  the  example  of  the  frog,  and  been 
found  quietly  concealed  in  the  imid  they  had  kicked  up  for 
the  purpose  of  concealing  their  own  rascality, — said  mud 
and  trouble  to  be  charged  to  the  general  account  of  "  Sun- 
dries" of  the  institution,  and  the  blunders  and  misplaced 
confidences  of  its  unhappy  Author. 

And,  still  further,  let  it  be  resolved  that,  besides  the  issues 
of  honesty  and  truth  in  making  a  fair  pronunciamento  and 
declaration  of  ends,  motives,  and  designs  in  terrestrial 
operations,  it  is  a  laudable  desire  in  human  nature  to 
set  itself  right  on  all  questions,  to  escape  the  odium  of  the 
imputation  of  softness  or  verdancy,  a  veritable  eifort  of 
instinct  to  avoid  the  calamity  of  being  misunderstood,  or 
split  on  the  rock  of  fools,  or  caught,  like  the  hare  in  the 
race  with  the  tortoise,  sleeping,  when  the  race  could  have 
been  so  easily  won,  and  thus  a  natural  aspiration  toward 
common  sense  and  reason,  and  in  all  things  of  being 
acquitted  of  the  charge  of  absolute  fatuity  or  mental 
obtuseness,  not  to  speak  of  being  made  sound  on  the  more 
delicate  questions  of  justice  and  righteousness,  of  honor 
and  manhood. 

And  let  it  be  still  further  resolved,  in  the  mean  time,  that 
the  prayers  of  the  righteous  shall  ascend  forever,  that  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  shall  descend  in  the  shape  of  the  per- 
fectly-published, exquisitely-arranged,  and  totally-appurte- 
nanced,  Health  Institute  or  Mountain  Sanitarium.  Taking 
all  past  troubles  as  innocent  experiments  on  the  quality  of 
metal,  practical  jokes  on  the  part  of  the  supernals  at  the 
expense  of  the  most  amiable  soul  now  working  out  its  sad 
duration  rapidly  in  the  thongs  of  the  flesh, — permitting  the 
sand-bags  to  repose,  and  "leaving  the  dead  to  bury  the 
dead," — it  is  well  ever  to  grasp  the  hand  of  the  true  man, 
to  progress  and  grow,  to  trust  and  fight,  to  fight  and 
trust,  and  in  the  mean  time  the  Mountain  and  its  claims 
stand  a  clearly-pronounced  excuse  for  their  own  appear- 
ance, a  sufficiently  patent  manifestation  of  the  grace  and 


PROLEGOMENON.  43 

grandeur  of  the  Eternal,  to  be  admitted  to  a  hearing  with- 
out special  plea,  and  to  fill  the  formula  of  the  ends  of 
Divine  Love  and  Divine  Wisdom  in  the  universal  economy. 

Which  also  being  taken  for  granted  and  held  in  the 
clear  light  of  a  revelation,  it  is  fully  apparent  that  it  is 
chiefly  in  its  aspects  of  benignity,  and  its  promises  of  good 
to  humanity,  that  the  Mountain  asserts  its  claim  to  the  con- 
sideration  of  men.  Those  rushing  streams  of  purest  water, 
those  ever-green  solitudes  of  piny  forests  fresh  with  the 
verdure  of  immortal  youth,  those  mountain -heights  bathed 
by  the  waves  of  an  ocean  of  air  unmingled  with  an  earthly 
taint  and  pure  as  ether,  are  surely  not  meant  to  fade  and 
pass  away  as  the  fantastically-arranged  phenomenal,  to  vanish 
as  useless  visions  and  cloud-pictures  in  the  sky,  or  shimmer 
as  ornamental  appendages  for  dramatic  purposes,  floating 
on  the  artist's  easel  only,  in  a  world  of  soberest  uses  and 
savagest  realities,  with  the  single  apology  that  "  beauty  is 
its  own  excuse  for  being.  NOTHING  WE  SEE  BUT  MEANS  OUR 
GOOD."  Mingled  ever  with  the  radiant  form  of  the  beauti- 
ful is  the  earnest  and  sober  dowdyism  of  the  useful  and 
necessary.  Use,  use  in  all  things  would  seem  in  certain 
attitudes  of  Nature  to  be  her  only  object;  for  "all  the  goods 
which  exist  are  called  uses,  and  by  these  uses  are  meant  all 
things  which  appear  upon  the  earth, — as  animals  of  every 
kind,  vegetables  of  every  kind,  nourishment,  clothing, 
habitation,  recreation,  delight,  protection,  and  preservation." 
Under  the  despotism  of  this  light,  insignificant  seem  all 
other  aspects  of  things  :  this  is  the  fierce  realization  which 
all  men  and  animals  make  of  the  world,  and  to  whose 
tyrannizing  instincts  the  earth  has  no  other  end.  To  the 
consciousness  of  most  men,  the  homely  mantle  of  utilita- 
rianism covers  all  things,  and  of  other  or  higher  purposes 
in  existence  there  are  simply  none. 

But  the  globe  is  round,  the  atom  is  round,  and  Nature 
revels  in  spheres;  and  to  take,  as  representative  integers, 
arcs  of  her  circles  or  segments  of  her  orbs,  is  to  lose  the 
unity  of  her  purpose,  the  totality  of  her  end,  to  avert  the 


44  PROLEGOMENON. 

grandeur  of  her  face  and  pervert  the  integrity  and  sym- 
metry of  her  meaning.  Thus  Nature  exists  for  the  health 
and  rectitude  of  both  body  and  soul,  for  the  highest  as  well 
as  the  lowest,  for  time  and  forever.  Mere  utilitarianism, 
then,  cannot  be  all.  The  world  will  not  resolve  itself  into 
a  chapter  of  economics  alone.  This  organic  globe,  travel- 
ling through  azure  spaces,  related  with  perfect  harmony 
and  eternal  laws  to  solar  and  sidereal  systems,  is  certainly 
too  richly  furnished  with  forms  of  beauty,  with  elements 
of  grace  and  light,  of  joy  and  sweetness,  to  have  been 
designed  for  a  kitchen  or  barn,  a  warehouse  or  machine- 
shop. 

Ever  in  the  din  and  clangor  of  its  mechanisms,  the 
monotonous  homeliness  of  its  utilities,  steal  in  the  far-off 
symphonies  of  aprofounder  world  of  attractions, — "a  deeper 
music,  whose  tones  are  ideas," — a  world  made  aromatic  and 
divine  by  the  Beautiful  as  well  as  great  and  glorious  by 
the  Good  and  the  True.  Whilst  the  Mountain  invigorates  and 
regenerates  the  outward  man  by  its  healthful  powers  and 
restorative  influences  upon  the  body,  it  can  also  feed  the 
inner  man,  and  give  vitality  to  the  streams  and  currents  of 
spiritual  forces  that  descend  from  the  Infinite  to  the  soul, 
and  by  sanity  and  reason  nourish  and  save  them  both.  The 
influence  of  Nature,  aside  from  economics,  is  to  love  and 
worship,  through  veneration  of  what  is  high  and  holy  in 
the  universe,  as  well  as  to  bless  by  the  affections  through 
objects  of  sweetness  and  purity  in  the  sphere  of  taste  and 
beauty.  As  the  world  stands  an  exponent  of  the  Eternal 
Mind,  "  whom  Nature  veils,  clothes,  and  manifests,"  now 
"  vocal  in  a  tone,  now  visible  in  a  gleam,"  the  Mountain 
still  must  be  the  highest  thought,  the  strongest  will,  the 
deepest  love.  Its  promises,  then,  come  a  song  of  joy,  with 
a  voice  of  hope  and  a  word  of  peace  for  all  the  children 
of  men. 

Here  the  overworked  artist  and  artisan  from  the  con- 
fined air  of  the  city,  the  care-eaten  merchant,  the  charred 
and  lacerated  banker,  the  wan  and  feverish  man  of  books 


PROLEGOMENON.  45 

and  thought,  the  exhausted  professional  slave,  the  hag- 
gard hunter  of  pleasure,  can  come,  and  in  the  depths  of 
original  forests,  in  the  presence  of  the  loveliest  and 
grandest  forms  of  Nature,  and  under  the  ecstasy  and  heal- 
ing of  her  divine  wings,  again  fall  into  the  "charmed  circle" 
of  life  and  health.  In  bountiful  profusion  the  saving  ele- 
ments are  here  poured  forth;  and  the  victim  of  disease  and 
suffering,  of  care  and  pain,  can  drink  healing  and  happi- 
ness, soundness  and  strength,  from  exhaustless  fountains, 
and  both  body  and  soul  be  delivered  from  the  tyranny  of 
the  "gloomy  powers  which  reign  in  tainted  sepulchres" 
and  a  sinful  world. 

It  is  obvious,  then,  that  some  shape  of  Bill  of  Fare  for  this 
same  soul  and  body  was  necessary  to  be  rendered, — some 
statement  of  the  availables  of  the  Mountain  in  all  its 
aspects  of  use,  health,  beauty,  and  teaching,  or  worship, 
ecstasy,  progress,  and  salvation.  Thus,  of  course,  there 
would  be  demanded  a  recitation  of  "  what  Heaven  had 
done  for  that  delicious  land,"  what  the  Earth-spirit  meant 
when  that  patch  of  the  "garment  thou  readest"  was 
woven,  something  of  this  "fragment  of  the  broad  crea- 
tion," "this  divine  improvization,"  some  song  of  its  what, 
its  where,  its  wherefore.  Clearly  devolving,  then,  was  some 
account  of  the  Mountain,  of  its  science  or  Natural  History, 
of  its  final  cause,  or  end  for  which  created,  or  Supernatural 
History. 

Commencing  at  the  foundation  must  come  the  book 
"Atlas,"  the  great  mountain,  the  great  mountain-holder, 
the  great  heaven-holder, — he  "whose  brawny  back  supports 
the  starry  skies,  whose  head  with  piny  forests  crowned." 
Hence  the  "  Geology  of  the  Mountain"  was  necessary,  as 
the  basis  or  substratum  of  its  story, — the  skeleton,  the  great 
primordial  framework,  of  its  wondrous  hody. 

Naturally  upon  this  would  come  the  enveloping  mineral 
mass,  earth-cloak,  or  integument  of  the  same, — that  is,  the 
Soil.  Then  the  circulating  fluids  would  attract  attention, 
and  the  story  of  the  Waters,  mineral,  thermal,  and  pure, 


46  PROLEGOMENON. 

would  appear  in  due  order  of  sequence.  In  the  chain  of 
rational  connection  with  this  would  follow  the  "  Flora," 
the  plant  or  vegetable  life-clothing  of  the  mountain,  which 
is  again  dependent  upon  the  soil,  water,  climate,  &c.  of 
the  same, — associated  with  all  of  which  would  arrive  a 
chapter  of  its  "  Fauna/'  or  animal  life. 

A  catalogue  of  animals — namely,  mammals,  birds,  reptiles, 
and  fishes — which  inhabit  the  mountain,  or  a  hurried  enu- 
meration of  the  different  orders  of  creation  in  that  depart- 
ment, would  be  required. 

Then  would  arrive  the  consideration  of  the  ocean  of  air 
above,  upon  which  all  created  things  depend, — the  great 
medium  of  existence,  the  reservoir  of  vitality  or  life-cur- 
rents ;  for,  as  "  all  life  comes  from  the  sea,"  so  the  sea  itself, 
in  the  "nebular  theories"  of  philosophers,  came  from  the 
air.  The  story  of  this  air-ocean,  its  MACHINERY,  as  they 
call  it,  its  organization,  or  systematic  order  of  movements, 
as  vital  to  the  planet,  to  animal,  to  vegetable, — to  all  living 
things, — would  constitute  the  "  Climatology  of  the  Moun- 
tain/' Succeeding  this  would  come  the  aspect  of  the  same 
as  a  great  SANITARY  CREATION,  an  immeasurable  deposi- 
tory of  healing  forces,  curative  agencies,  acknowledged 
therapeutic  powers  in  every  shape, — as  the  great  exponent 
of  all  which  elements  of  the  world  stands  the  son  of 
Apollo  and  Coronis,  the  laurel-crowned  god  of  physic  and 
physicians,  "jiEsculapius." 

It  occurred  that  a  book  in  his  name,  dedicated  to  him  as 
a  votive  offering,  would  be  the  end  fulfilled,  would  be 
appropriate  and  comely,  would  be  an  expression  of  the  fit- 
ness and  perfection  of  things.  The  fables  of  his  life  point 
to  him  as  the  "personification  of  the  healing  powers  of 
Nature,"  in  the  formula  of  the  God  as  physician,  the  func- 
tion and  end  of  whose  existence  is  health,  physical  regene- 
ration, and  well-being, — the  God  who  uses  the  world  as  an 
hospital,  and  to  whom  all  objects  must  classify  themselves 
as  medicinal  or  not-medicinal,  plus  or  minus  in  the  scale  of 
healing  properties,  the  world  simply  existing  for  the  ends  of 


PROLEGOMENON.  47 

health  and  ecstasy,  or  soundness  and  the  enjoyment  thereof, 
and  no  other.  Thus,  a  book  dedicated  to  the  God  of  medi- 
cine was  necessary  to  a  full  expression  of  the  attitudes 
of  the  Mountain  to  man,  also  as  definitive  of  the  position  of 
the  healing  man,  the  truly  honest,  science-abiding,  reason- 
directed  Physician,  using  a II  things  to  achieve  his  ends, — nature, 
arty  all  substances,  all  forces,  all  matter,  all  spirit,  ponderable 
elements,  imponderable  agents. 

It  occurred  as  pertinent  in  the  present  apparently  dis- 
astrous aspect  of  the  medical  world,  split,  as  it  seems 
to  outside  observers,  into  warring  factions  or  squabbling 
schools,  into  orthodox  and  heterodox,  regular  and  quack,  to 
say,  once  for  all,  that  there  is  but  one  school,  one  regular  pro- 
fession, one  orthodox  church  of  science,  and  that  is  the  old, 
which  is  also  the  new, — embracing  and  surrounding  all  other 
pretences,  ignoring  all  other  affectations  of  knowledge, — to  wit : 
the  regular  scientific  knowledge  of  man,  commencing  with  the 
anatomy  of  the  human  body,  which  must  be  the  "  future 
grammar  of  every  school  which  gives  real  instruction  to 
mankind."  Embracing  also  all  existences  surrounding  it 
in  the  shape  of  the  influences  of  the  earth  and  its  furniture, 
material  and  dynamic  agencies, — in  short,  all  the  related 
natural  sciences,  which,  of  course,  comprise  those  elements 
of  knowledge  that  have  been  grouped,  from  time  imme- 
morial, under  the  head  of  Medical  Science  and  practice  as 
advocated  by  the  ancient  brotherhood,  appropriately  called 
the  Regular  Profession. 

The  story  of  the  Doctor,  or  representative  healing  man, 
and  his  connection  with  the  Mountain,  would  naturally 
arrange  itself  in  the  form  and  substance  of  the  chapter 
"  ^Esculapius." 

Then  there  are  fables  of  the  primitive  vigor  of  man,  of 
the  terrible  strength  of  Samson  and  Hercules,  of  human 
lives  almost  indestructible,  stretching  into  long  hundreds 
of  years,  as  in  the  proximate  immortality  of  the  body  of 
Methuselah  and  the  wellnigh  invulnerability  of  the  form 
of  Achilles,  all  of  which  would  typify  a  splendor  and  per- 


48  PROLEGOMENON. 

fection  of  his  physical  nature  now  unknown  and  beyond 
belief  or  aspiration. 

Is  the  present  squalor  or  walking  catalogue  of  disease  and 
infirmity  to  be  superseded  by  a  more  perfect  incarnation 
of  the  soul  ?  is  the  present  loafer — the  u  eat-all,  do-nothing" — 
to  be  succeeded  by  the  normal  and  sound  man,  with  erect 
body  and  determined  will,  whose  works  and  labors  shall 
shine  as  the  acts  of  apostles  and  demigods  of  history  ? 

There  are  hopes  for  humanity  which  have  taken  diiferent 
forms  in  prophetic  souls,  in  different  regenerators  of  the 
race, — divine  vaticinations  of  the  advent  of  the  new  and 
more  perfect  splendor,  vague  articulations  of  the  voice  of 
the  Destinies;  all  of  which  would  herald  the  dawn  of  a  new 
world  and  realize  the  prayer  for  the  new  and  perfect  man 
to  be  born.  It  is  clearly  apparent  that  the  man  dimly  fore- 
shadowed is  the  perfect  physical  man,  who  must  also  be  the 
perfect  metaphysical  man;  for  "to  FORM  man  is  predicated  of 
the  external  man  when  made  alive,  or  when  he  becomes 
celestial;  and  as  the  natural  forms  of  things,  both  animate 
and  inanimate,  are  representative  of  spiritual  and  celestial 
things  in  the  Lord's  kingdom,"  so  the  perfect  natural  man 
from  divine  correspondence  will  become  the  perfect  super- 
natural man. 

What  wisdom  is  in  the  fable  of  Antaeus  I  He  was  a 
Giant  whose  strength  was  invincible  as  long  as  his  body 
was  the  perfect  culmination  of  the  somatic  forces  derived 
from  Nature,  or,  as  the  fable  deposeth,  from  his  mother  Earthy 
so  long  as  he  remained  in  contact  with  his  mother.  Now, 
man  is  that  giant  Antaeus  bereaved  of  his  strength  and 
invincibility  by  the  vicious  habitudes  of  civilized  life.  He 
congregates  in  towns  and  cities,  builds  for  himself  an  arti- 
ficial and  morbid  world,  lives  in  marble  palaces,  breathes 
the  mephitic  gases  and  pestilential  emanations  inseparable 
from  all  concentrated  accumulations  of  animal  life,  with 
their  necessary  accompaniments  of  gutters,  sinks,  and 
sewers, — inhaling  perpetually  the  dead  and  effete  air  of  heat- 
ing-furnaces, mingled  with  reekings  of  rum  and  tobacco; 


PROLEGOMENON.  49 

walks  upon  carpets  and  pavements,  consumes  disease  in 
the  shape  of  poisonous  and  luxurious  food,  lifted  into  the 
air  by  the  savage  force  of  the  giant  Vice, — a  terrible  Her- 
cules. 

Bruised  and  mangled,  his  only  hope  is  to  touch  the  bosom 
of  his  Mother  and  receive  again  his  life  and  strength.  Let 
him  seek  the  regeneration  and  salvation  of  the  country 
life;  let  him  leave  those  seething  caldrons  of  vice  and 
death,  towns  and  cities ;  let  him  ignore  that  fatal  gregarious 
instinct, — old  bond  of  veriest  animality,  ancient  despotism  of 
his  brutehood, — and  return  to  the  woods  and  fields  still  fresh 
with  the  fragrance  and  dews  of  the  dawn  of  the  world,  re- 
touched with  the  sweetness  of  immortal  youth  each  morn- 
ing of  time;  let  him  rush  to  the  hills  and  mountains, — 

"  Where  health  -with  health  agrees, 
And  the  wise  soul  expels  disease;" 

let  him  return  to  the  wisdom,  the  reason,  and  the  faith  of 
Nature  ;  let  him  inhale  the  odor  of  the  soil;  let  him  walk 
the  field  and  see  how  his  blood  grows  in  apple  and  potato, 
in  wheat  and  Indian  corn ;  let  him  wash  his  feet  in  the 
running  brook  from  the  sordes  and  pollution,  the  sensuality 
and  disease,  of  the  pathway  of  the  transgressor,  and  walk 
upon  the  sod  with  bared  soles,  a  humiliated  and  mournful, 
but  beloved  and  forgiven  prodigal,  knowing  that  his  Mother 
the  Earth  is  kind  to  her  rebellious  children,  and  always 
receives  the  penitent  who  returns  from  the  swine-husks  of 
sin,  within  the  sphere  of  her  benign  influence,  with  fat  things 
and  bountiful  benedictions. 

Thus  it  seemed  that  the  chapter  Antaeus  might  embrace 
the  promises  of  the  gospel  of  physical  regeneration,  and 
serve  as  a  pivotal  centre  around  which  to  rally  some  of  the 
overtures  of  healing  and  bodily  perfection  held  out  by  in- 
spired souls  and  Nature  to  her  erring  creatures.  Symbol- 
izing all  earthly  influences,  then,  the  Giant  invincible,  the 
terrible  wrestler  of  Libya  who  slew  all  men  who  contended 
with  him,  stands  the  incarnation  of  the  perpetually  restora- 
tive power  of  the  world,  the  genial,  saving  forces,  which 

4 


50  PROLEGOMENON. 

circulate  only  through  the  Earth  and  are  to  be  received  only 
by  coming  in  contact  with  the  great  Mother  of  all  created  beings. 

The  blessing  of  the  Mountain  is,  then,  the  prophecy  not 
yet  heard;  the  glory  of  the  Mountain  is  the  legend  of  poesy 
not  yet  sung ;  for  the  Mountain  is  the  golden  age  restored  :  it 
is  the  end  of  the  journey  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba  to  the  King 
of  the  Jews,  when  she  received  "from  his  royal  bounty  all  her 
desires."  The  Mountain  is  the  great  circle  of  health  squared, 
the  philosopher's  stone  at  last  found,  the  elixir  of  life  surely 
bottled,  more  miraculous  in  its  overtures  of  mercy  and 
happiness  than  the  Utopia  of  More,  the  Eepublic  of  Plato, 
or  the  Heaven  of  Mahomet. 

The  perfect  publication  of  the  body  of  man  in  health  and 
strength  seems  the  highest  achievement  of  all  science, 
of  all  philosophy. 

It  comes  at  last  that  sound  digestion  is  the  "  golden  key 
that  opes  the  palace  of  felicity"  sound  digestion  is  Al- 
Sirat's  bridge,  sound  digestion  is  the  oyster  whose  shell  is 
the  world.  Make  existence  a  divine  experiment,  make  the 
universe  a  perpetual  enchantment,  make  thy  body  an 
instrument  of  celestial  melodies,  by  looking  through  eyes 
that  are  not  turned  within  upon  a  stomach  that  groans, 
like  the  Titan  of  old,  "pain  ever,  forever."  That  cancer 
of  the  pylorus  is  a  ghastly  joke ;  that  mania  from  drink  is  a 
bitter  mockery  of  the  Lord,  the  tragedy  of  the  soul  lost ; 
inflammation  and  ulceration  of  mucous  membranes  are  fear- 
ful accomplishments  of  the  fire-eater.  Alas  that  this  should 
ever  be !  for  have  not  those  evil  days  most  surely  come 
when  love  of  money,  love  of  eating  and  drinking,  love  of 
excitement  from  the  nether  flames,  are  the  vultures  that 
devour  the  liver  of  this  fierce-rushing,  fire-stealing,  heaven- 
hating,  God-defying,  Yankee  Prometheus  ? 

Vicious  and  insane,  long  has  he  wandered  far  from  Nature ; 
rebellious  and  ungrateful,  he  must  return  again  to  her 
charmed  influence  or  perish.  The  woods  and  mountains 
have  healing  for  him :  let  him  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come. 

The  story  of  the  god  of  the  woods  is  no  figment  of  the 


PROLEGOMENON.  51 

imagination.  It  means  the  health  and  strength  of  man's 
own  youth ;  it  means  his  life-power  in  contact  with  Nature, 
and  stands  a  record  of  his  force  revealed  by  the  immortal 
soundness  of  his  unprofaned,  unfallen  organism.  The  God 
of  the  woods  to  the  ignorant  and  uninitiated  is  a  monster, 
savage  in  his  attributes,  hideous  in  his  form  and  mien,  the 
object  of  fear  and  detestation.  This  is  superficial  and  pro- 
fane; for  "  PAN  is  a  symbol  of  the  world.  In  his  upper  part 
he  resembles  a  man,  in  his  lower  part  a  beast, — because  the 
supreme  and  celestial  part  of  the  world  is  beautiful,  radiant, 
and  glorious,  as  is  the  face  of  this  god,  whose  horns  re- 
semble the  rays  of  the  sun  and  horns  of  the  moon;  the 
redness  of  his  face  is  like  the  splendor  of  the  sky;  and  the 
spotted  skin  that  he  wears  is  an  image  of  the  starry  firma- 
ment. In  his  lower  parts  he  is  shagged  and  deformed, — 
which  represents  the  shrubs  and  wild  beasts  and  the  trees 
of  the  earth  below;  his  goat's  feet  signify  the  solidity  of 
the  earth  ;  and  his  pipe  of  seven  reeds  that  celestial  har- 
mony which  is  made  by  the  seven  planets.  He  has  a  sheep, 
hook,  crooked  at  the  top,  in  his  hand, — which  signifies  the 
turning  of  the  year  into  itself. 

"The  nymphs  dance  to  the  music  of  the  pipe, — which  in- 
strument he  first  invented ;  and,  as  oft  as  he  blows  it,  the 
dugs  of  the  sheep  are  filled  with  milk,  for  he  is  the  god  of 
shepherds  and  hunters,  the  President  of  the  Mountains 
and  of  the  Country  Life,  and  the  guardian  of  flocks  that 
graze  upon  the  mountains." 

Withal,  it  is  evident  from  this  wondrous  story  that  the 
great  god  Pan  is  a  most  excellent  fellow.  He  lives  in  grottos, 
the  shade  of  rocks,  and  sylvan  solitudes,  presiding  as  deity 
over  forests,  pastures,  flocks,  shepherds,  and  huntsmen, — 
especially  happy  in  the  glories  of  the  chase,  frequenting 
tops  of  mountains,  indulging  in  the  ecstasies  of  drinking 
the  blood  of  wolves  and  bears,  with  the  unspeakable  rap- 
tures of  eating  wild  honey  and  dancing  to  the  music  of  the 
syrinx  with  the  nymphs  of  the  woods.  Given  to  snoring 
sullenly  and  drowsily  when  the  sun  is  in  the  zenith,  he  is 


52  PROLEGOMENON. 

clearly  a  \vake  when  the  dews  of  evening  or  morning  are 
on  the  grass.  Filled  with  the  loveliness  of  groves  and  the 
beauty  of  rural  haunts,  to  utter  the  melodies  of  his  heart 
he  had  to  invent  the  shepherd's  flute,  and,  being  in  his  soul 
musical,  performed  upon  it  to  perfection  himself.  As  the 
favored  lover  of  the  nymph  Echo,  and  permitted  the  honor 
of  instructing  Apollo  in  the  art  of  divination,  he  must  have 
possessed  transcendent  attractions:  else  how  could  he 
have  become  the  sire  of  lynx,  "  the  symbol  of  passionate 
and  restless  love,"  also  deemed  worthy  of  respect  among 
the  supernals?  else  why  the  teacher  of  a  great  god  of 
Olympus  in  an  art  so  important  as  prophecy  ? 

Decidedly  exquisite  and  charming  he  must  be,  then,  with 
his  "  horns,  beard,  puck-nose,  tail,  goat's  feet,  and  covering 
of  hair,"  notwithstanding  his  own  mother  did  flee  from 
him  with  disgust  and  horror  at  his  birth.  The  nymphs 
cared  for  him,  nursed,  and  brought  him  up, — which  perhaps 
accounts  for  the  fact  of  the  nymphs  liking  such  fellows 
ever  since.  Pan  is  good  to  the  nymphs:  they  were  very 
good  to  him.  The  fir-tree  (hemlock)  is  sacred  to  him ;  for 
reasons,  ask  "Pitys,"  the  beautiful  and  beloved,  whose 
spirit  still  sadly  breathes  through  its  boughs  the  moan  of  a 
suffocated,  desolate,  and  broken  heart.  They  say  he  is 
sensual  and  voluptuous,  given  much  to  dancing  and  revelry. 
Evidence,  this,  of  health  and  soundness, — no  derangements 
local  or  general,  acute  or  chronic,  no  tuberculous  deposits, 
gouts,  dyspepsias,  or  neuralgias, — having  the  immortal  vigor 
of  the  woods  in  his  bones  and  in  his  blood,  still  the  vitality 
of  the  crystalline  air  of  Arcadia.  A  proper  son  of  Uranus 
and  Ge,  (Heaven  and  Earth,)  with  the  boundless  self-suffi- 
ciency of  health  and  strength,  he  could  well  afford  to  live 
in  forests  and  be  the  god  of  shepherds  and  huntsmen. 

Weary  of  the  degeneracy  of  his  ancient  habitations, 
where  the  haunts  of  divinities,  "mid  ruins  old,"  are 
changed  into  poultry-roosts  and  shambles  for  the  flesh  of 
dogs,  and  a  peculiar  gout  is  given  to  the  fat  of  turkeys  by 


PROLEGOMENON.  58 

feeding  them  upon  olives,  whilst  cities  of  orators,  poets, 
and  demi-gods  have  become  doleful  dens  of  fallen  races, — 

"  The  servile  offspring  of  the  free, 
Greece  being  living  Greece  no  more," — 

he  has  retired  to  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  where  the 
splendor  of  his  youth  has  been  restored;  and  he  invites,  as 
in  golden  days  of  eld,  to  worship  in  his  first  temples,  pro- 
mising his  votaries  that,  if  they  devoutly  seek,  they  shall  be 
endowed  with  his  attributes,  in  the  form  of  health,  toughness 
and  vigor,  of  which  the  wolf-murderer  and  dancer  to  the 
music  of  reeds  is  the  proper  incarnation  and  veritable 
symbol. 

E.  M.  S.  JACKSON. 
ALLEGHANY  MOUNTAIN  SPRINGS, 

Cresson,  Cambria  county,  Pa. 


ERRATA. 


In  the  Natural  History  Catalogues  of  Book  Atlas  the  capital  letters 
to  specific  names  should  be  lower  case  or  common  letters. 

Page  24  of  Prolegomenon,  7th  line,  for  elio  read  clio. 

Page  100,  31st  line,  for  haven  read  heaven. 

Page  256,  last  line,  for  2668  read  2928. 

Page  342,  3d  line,  for  Comes  south  read  Comes  from  the  South. 

Page  355,  13th  line,  for  are  read  is. 

Page  379,  8th  line,  for  literal  read  littoral. 

Page  410,  the  star  refers  to  note  at  bottom  of  page  with  double 
cross;  the  single  cross  to  note  star;  and  the  double  cross  to  the  note 
single  cross. 

Page  440,  21st  line,  for  hundred  read  hundreds. 

Page  445,  31st  line,  for  the  second  as  read  on. 

Page  494,  24th  line,  for  in  matter  read  in  ponderable  matter. 

Page  525,  at  bottom  of  page  the  Note  should  read  Wilkinson. 


CONTENTS. 


BOOK    ATLAS. 

NATURAL  SCIENCE  OF  THE  MOUNTAIN,  OR  WHAT  THE  MOUN- 
TAIN IS  IN  A  CRITICAL  INVENTORY  OF  THE  PLANET,  SKELE- 
TON, SKIN,  APPENDAGES,  AND  CIRCULATING  FLUIDS. 

CHAPTER   I. 

GEOLOGY   OF    THE    ALLEGHANY  MOUNTAIN. 

PAGE 

Geography  and  topography  of  the  Appalachian  group ;  separate 
Chains ;  geographic  nomenclature ;  discrepancies  ;  geological 
and  topographic  continuities;  topography  of  the  Alleghany 
Mountain  proper;  Appalachian  ranges  east  and  west  of  the 
Alleghany  Mountain ;  general  geology  of  the  Appalachian 
group  with  intervening  valleys ;  general  distribution  and  to- 
pography of  the  great  sedimentary  series  of  rocks;  Appala- 
chian waves  and  wrinkles ;  general  style  of  fracture  and  dis- 
tribution, with  law  thereof;  anticlinal  and  synclinal  axes; 
mountains,  valleys,  denudation,  crimping  of  strata,  laws 
thereof;  rending  and  crushing ;  geological  classification ;  geo- 
logy of  Old  and  New  Worlds ;  parallelism  of  rocks  in  Europe 
and  America,  or  geological  equivalence ;  identity,  etc. ;  Eu- 
ropean and  American  geologists;  theorists;  geological  sugges- 
tions; Silurian  and  Devonian  groups;  Americans  geologists; 
recitation  of  the  formations  of  Pennsylvania  from  below  up- 
ward; numerical  series;  how  it  forms  the  surface  of  the  State; 
whole  contour  of  the  surface ;  geographic  distribution ;  frac- 
tures; topographic  style  of  distribution  of  the  rocks  in  different 
parts  of  the  State;  upper  portion  of  the  series  of  rocks;  coal- 
fields and  underlying  formations,  how  arranged ;  special  geo- 
logy of  the  Alleghany  Mountain ;  mineral  masses  forming  the 
body  of  the  mountain;  why  the  mountain  is  there;  bituminous 
coal-fields ;  scientific  significance  of  the  mountain  as  a  frag- 
ment of  the  globe;  how  related;  song  of  the  rocks;  whence, 
whither,  and  how  related  to  the  whole ;  scenery  of  the  moun- 
tain; elements  of  use  and  beauty;  glory  and  grandeur  of  the 
mountain ;  great  depository  of  life-forces ;  health  ;  disease ; 
final  cause  of  the  creation  of  the  mountain 69 

55 


PAGE 

103 


56  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  II. 

SOIL. 

Character ;  composition ;  origin  of  the  mineral  elements  of  the 

same 

/ 

CHAPTER  III. 

WATERS    OF   THE    MOUNTAIN. 

General  hydrography  of  Appalachian  axes  or  water-sheds ;  spe- 
cial hydrography  of  the  Alleghany  Mountain,  its  springs  and 
streams;  how  distributed  as  to  shedding  surfaces;  hydrology; 
character  of  waters  mineral,  thermal,  and  pure ;  classification 
of  waters ;  special  details  of  waters  ;  mineral  springs  of  Penn- 
sylvania; hydrography  of  the  same,  or  geographic  distribu- 
tion ;  classification ;  analysis  ;  origin  of  mineralization ;  asso- 
ciation of  mineral  springs  with  geological  formations;  medici- 
nal virtues  of  waters,  whence  derived ;  individual  springs  of 
Pennsylvania;  Bedford;  Frankfort;  Fayette;  Blossburg; 
Bath ;  York ;  Perry  County  Springs ;  Doubling  Gap ;  Yellow; 
Ephrata;  Caledonia;  Alleghany  Mountain  Springs;  individual 
springs  of  this  group;  analysis  ;  characters  of  the  same,  their 
healing  virtues ;  Brady  wine  Springs. 

Catalogue  of  mineral  springs  of  the  United  States  and  Terri- 
tories, Canada  and  New  Mexico ;  Dissertation  on  mineral  and 
pure  waters;  prophylactic  and  therapeutic  virtues,  medical 
agents  in  the  great  chapter  of  uses;  significance  to  mankind...  109 

CHAPTER  IV. 

FLORA   OF   THE   MOUNTAIN. 

Vegetable  cell;  the  plant,  its  significance,  and  where  in  the  Di- 
vine economy;  laws;  distribution;  the  tree,  what  is  it?  sig- 
nificance ;  symbolical ;  substantive ;  the  woods :  man ;  love  ; 
worship;  Tropical  Flora;  Arctic  Flora;  Flora  of  Temperate 
Zones ;  Flora  of  Alleghany  Mountain ;  trees  and  forests ;  spe- 
cial portraiture  of  trees ;  style  of  growth  of  the  forests  of  the 
Alleghanies ;  style  of  forests  peculiar  to  each  species  of  tree ; 
character  of  mixed  forests ;  description,  special,  general,  of 
the  cone-bearing  trees  or  great  pine  family;  amentaceous  or 
cat-kin  bearing  trees ;  mixed  woods ;  laws  of  distribution ; 
soil,  air,  water,  necessities  of;  succession  of  forests;  vernal 
expression,  sights  and  sounds ;  Summer  expression,  sights  and 
sounds;  Autumnal  enchantments;  change  of  leaf;  death  of 
leaf-world;  Fall;  Winter;  shrub  or  heath  growth  of  moun- 
tain; plants  forming  the  underwood;  "heath,"  or  bush,  de- 
scription of  the  same ;  beauty  of  flowering  species  ;  peculiari- 
ties of  the  bush  of  the  mountain  ;  herbaceous  plants ;  flowers 
of  the  mountain;  crops  of  different  seasons;  extreme  beauty 
of  the  same;  cryptogamic  plants;  ferns;  mosses,  special  home 
of;  lichens;  hepaticee;  algse 208 


CONTENTS.  57 


CHAPTER  V. 

ANIMAL    LIFE    OF    THE    MOUNTAIN. 

PAGE 

FIRST  GREAT  DIVISION  OF  THE  ANIMAL  KINGDOM. — Animalia 
Vertebrata:  Class  1,  Mammalia;  Mammals.  Class  2,  Ovipa- 
rous Vertebrata :  Aves,  or  Birds.  Class  3,  Reptilia,  or  Rep- 
tiles. Class  4,  Pisces,  or  Fishes 289 

SECOND  GREAT  DIVISION  OF  THE  ANIMAL  KINGDOM. — Anirnalia 
Mollusca;  Soft  Animals 390 

THIRD  GREAT  DIVISION  OF  THE  ANIMAL  KINGDOM. — Animalia 
Articulata 406 

FOURTH  GREAT  DIVISION  OF  THE  ANIMAL  KINGDOM. — Animalia 
Radiata 426 

CHAPTER  VI. 

CLIMATE    OF    THE    MOUNTAIN. 

Meteorology;  laws  of  atmospheric  motions ;  philosophy  of ;  me- 
tereology  of  North  America  compared  with  Old  World ;  cli- 
mate of  coasts;  climate  of  the  interior  valley  of  North  America; 
climate  of  Atlantic  and  Pacific  ranges  of  mountains;  extreme 
fluctuations  of  temperature ;  is  of  the  class  of  excessive  cli- 
mates of  Buffon :  magnetic  intensities;  variations;  isothermal 
lines;  climate  of  Alleghanies;  low  mean  annual  temperature 
of  the  same;  thermometric ;  magnetic  vicissitudes;  hygro- 
metric  states;  hygrometeors  in  general;  rains  of  the  moun- 
tain; whence  the  falling  waters  ;  comparison  with  other  por- 
tions of  the  world;  quantities  of  rain  in  different  ports  of  the 
planet;  Alleghany  Mountains  atmospheric  modifiers;  quantity 
of  rain  on  the  Alleghanies;  dew  precipitations ;  hygrometric 
and  electric  phenomena ;  local  special  causes  of  the  same  on 
Alleghanies ;  supposed  moisture  of  the  mountain  surfaces, 
with  its  streams,  deep  forests,  soaked  soils,  undried  surfaces, 
etc. ;  no  undue  humidity  of  the  atmosphere  of  the  mountain ; 
seasons  on  the  mountain;  cloud-forming;  fogs;  diurnal  and 
nocturnal  variations ;  caloric,  hygrometric,  electric ;  Indian 
summer;  great  problem,  change  of  climate  as  a  modifier  of 
disease ;  therapeutics  of  climates ;  medicines  of  airs ;  positive 
demonstrable  laws  of  habitats 429 


58  CONTENTS. 


BOOK  II.—  JESCULAPIUS. 

CHAPTER  I. 

SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  ALLEGHANY  MOUNTAINS  AS  THE  SITE  OF  A 
SANITARIUM,  OR  RETREAT  FOR  THE  SICK,  ARRANGED  BY  INFINITE 
WISDOM— DOCTORIAL  USES  OF  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

PAGE 

Who  is  the  healing  man  ?  origin  of  the  medical  profession ; 
critique  on  fixity  and  progress;  reverence  for  the  past;  the 
word ;  old  medicine  too  material,  too  faithful  to  the  prepon- 
derables;  imponderables  the  movers,  builders,  and  destroyers; 
veritable  show-masters ;  ponderables  the  puppets ;  imponder- 
ables prophylactic  and  therapeutic,  or  disorganizing  and  lethi- 
ferous ;  the  vast  realities  of  power  sleep  in  the  trace  of  the 
divine  incubus  of  law  UNDER  the  outward phenominal;  hygienics 
and  dynamics  of  imponderables ;  efforts  to  attain  the  spiritu- 
alities of  things  through  the  imponderables ;  medical  spiritu- 
alities ;  spirit  manifestations ;  medical  theories  of  the  same ; 
plagues  of  Egypt  following  regular  profession  ;  homoeopathy ; 
fantastic  tricks  of  infinitesimals;  humbugability  of  the  race; 
general  formula  of  molecules ;  philosophy  of  NOTHING  ;  oracu- 
lar bard  of  the  sciences ;  Hahnemann  a  new  revelation ;  his 
last  formula;  new  modus  operand!  of  vis  medicatrix  naturee  ; 
homoeopathy;  Croelius;  hydropathy;  Chaldean  oracles;  Preiss- 
nitz;  mankind  in  darkness;  arrival  of  the  inspired  one;  glory 
of  water;  gods  of  waters  in  old  mythology;  Preissnitz  knocks 
them  all ;  man  clearly  amphibious ;  Maine  liquor  law  ;  chem- 
istry; water,  cleanliness,  godliness;  water  as  cure-all;  Ameri- 
cans grab  worn-out  crotchets  of  Old  Word;  trot  them  out 
Young  America;  hoaxes  run  through  the  mill  again  and  again; 
after  all  Yankee  easily  sold ;  the  thing  a  little  musty  from 
age;  must  be  foreign,  however;  portentous  humbugs;  Mes- 
mer,  of  Swabia;  shoots  a  la  Jonah's  gourd,  for  a  time  in 
heaven  with  Barnum,  Jo  Miller,  Jo  Smith  &  Co.;  disposition 
to  glorify  quacks  ;  nemesis;  murdered  kings  of  quackery;  ex- 
ploded Barnum's;  Yankee  not  a  religious  animal — won't  wor- 
ship monkeys,  even  God,  long  at  a  time  ;  tired  of  Barnum  and 
the  inspired  Josephs ;  did  print  Barnum's  book,  and  inflict  a 
nausea  on  the  solar  system;  rap!  shades  of  the  dead,  rise!  or 
speak  without  getting  up,  if  you  prefer ;  spiritual  drummers ; 
healing  media ;  secrets  of feloniously  wormed  out ;  mira- 
cles to  order ;  rap !  the  dead  move — beds  are  taken  up,  eyes 
are  opened;  cancers,  avaunt!  regular  faculty  flung:  old  medi- 
cine in  trouble;  hair  dyes,  artificial  teeth,  miracles  among 
the  dull  catalogue  of  common  things  ;  Hume  nods  ;  interrup- 
tions of  the  laws  of  nature  always  on  hand;  peace  no  longer 
in  the  grave;  stop  singing  Psalms  in  Heaven — go  to  work, 
glorified  spirits,  no  time  for  loafing;  be  useful;  tell  us  about 
cancer  and  consumption;  help  us  through  with  obstinate  con- 
stipation; horn  of  Monker;  issues  in  court;  Plato  and  Zoro- 
aster, Hahnemann  and  Paracelsus,  Rappers  and  Swedenborg ; 


CONTESTS. 


PAGE 

scald  head,  diarrhoea,  oil  of  dead  men ;  infernal  dream ;  no 
rest  in  the  grave — must  wake  up  and  watch  the  table  business 
— worse,  attend  to  Dennis  O'Flaherty's  bowels  ;  horrors  of  tish 
and  whisky  in  the  Irish  intestine;  new  formula  of  Gehenna; 
new  patent-rights  of  torments  in  Pandemonium  ;  "after  death 
by  bilious  fever,"  rapper,  won't  you  let  us  sleep  well  "a  few 
days"  ?  other  birds  of  prey — owls  and  vultures — some  obscene, 
all  villanous  ;  get  your  dictionary;  kinesipathy;  hypnotism; 
what  of  them?  "Swedish  gymnastics"  theory  of  2000  move- 
ments— all  diseases  cured — practiced  for  years  in  Sweden; 
hypnotism ;  James  Braid,  of  Manchester ;  Wilkinson  on  Phre- 
nopathy;  hypnotism  sound  on  marriage  of  mud  and  spirit- 
pours  physical  salvation  into  the  animal  man  through  his  soul, 
as  follows:  *  * 

To  list  of  horrors  add  Uroscopy  and  Thompsonianism — same 
birds,  sired  by  "Prince  of  the  Air;"  strong  family  resem- 
blance ;  nostrums  and  nostrum  makers  ;  new  order  of  dragons; 
dukes  of  Sarsaparilla  antediluvian  saurians;  coprolites;  the 
evil  spirit  in  the  shape  of  quack  medicines;  Hobensack, 
Swain  &  Co. ;  maggot  in  the  head ;  vermifuge ;  fearful  power 
to  tap  the  streams  of  life;  satanic  issues;  blood;  money; 
transportation  of  granite;  humanity;  Choctaw  wigwams; 
horrors  of  Dante's  hell;  assassination  of  fraternal  instincts; 
Yankee  vultures  enthroned,  oh  weary  earth;  quack  princes; 
goddess  of  revenge;  nostrum  makers  and  venders ;  poisonous 
mixture  of  quack  and  felon;  what  of  the  doctors,  the  army 
of  knights  of  the  rueful  countenance?  is  all  uncertainty,  both 
quack  and  regular?  net  results  of  systems  of  medication; 
Hahnemann;  masterly  inactivity;  grand  science  of  Laissez 
Faire ;  nature  illimitable,  infallible;  let  things  alone;  gas 
away  homoeopathy,  one  sell  will  do,  let  the  patient  dream; 
faith,  immortal  faith;  slander  of  the  druggists;  old  dragons 
not  discarded  by  homoeopathy. 

Hydropathy,  real  merit,  song  of  the  waters — as  panacea,  egre- 
gious humbug;  certain  conditions,  real  death  power ;  water  a 
good  thing  in  its  place:  good  in  a  mug  when  thirsty;  bad  as 
a  home  for  sharks  when  you  are  floating  on  a  plank  a  thousand 
miles  from  shore;  spirit  rapping;  unmitigated  fraud  upon  the 
race;  quackeries  bet  on  strong  will  of  conservation;  delude 
man,  sell  forever;  Swain's  panacea;  Hobensack;  tickle  the 
trout ;  nature's  wings  are  healing ;  steals  feathers  of  the  regu- 
lar profession;  tacit  acknowledgment,  of  the  corn. 

Sickening  array  of  strategies  of  the  devil ;  where  can  the  suf- 
ferer look?  REGULAR  PROFESSION  Rock  of  Ages;  true 
brazen  serpent  in  the  wilderness  of  life ;  time  honored  ;  the 
Greek;  art  of  healing;  god  of  medicine  sound;  regular  pro- 
'fession  great  maternal  fount  of  science  of  man  ;  what  it  has 
done;  what  it  can  do;  use  medicinal  of  all  things;  regular  pro- 
fession must  not  surrender  the  greatest  powers  of  the  world 
to  quacks,  who  shall  fiddle  some  delusion  and  put  the  sick 
man  asleep,  while  nature  cures  him ;  intelligent,  use  of  the 
universe;  therapeutics  of  all  things;  chemistry;  drugs;  habits 
of  life  ;  change  of  habitat ;  curative  virtues  of  climates  ;  Hy- 


60  CONTENT?. 

PAGE 

geia,  daughter  of  JEsculapius,  true  to  the  teachings  of  her 
father ;  regular  profession  only  hope  of  humanity ;  flee  to  the 
mountains— their  rocks  will  not  cover  thee ;  tears  of  the  last 
sick  man  dried 481 

CHAPTER  II. 

HTGEIA. 

^Esculapius,  the  father  of  Hygeia;  interpretations  of  classical 
writers ;  is  a  personification  of  the  healing  powers  of  nature ; 
Hygeia,  mild  virgin,  goddess  of  health  and  sound  mind; 
sphere,  preservation  of  health  and  prevention  of  disease; 
fields  of  labor  presided  over  by  her;  art  of  prolonging  life; 
laws  of  health;  philosophy  of  living;  great  prophylactic; 
must  not  rob  her  father ;  Mayo  on  Hygiene ;  not  original, 
new,  or  just  in  stricture;  his  dig  at  the  profession;  no  rene- 
gade; faint  praise;  a  word  on  Prof.  Mayo's  work,  the  "Phi- 
losophy of  Living,"  and  Mayo ;  table  of  contents  of  his  book  ; 
Hufeland  on  the  macrobiotic  life;  medical  art,  hygiene;  mixed 
definitions;  troublesome  distinctions ;  art  of  prolonging  life; 
art  of  medicines,  strictures  on ;  use  of  medicine  and  physi- 
cians ;  Hufeland's  table  of  contents ;  state  of  science ;  art  of 
prolonging ;  extent  of  literature  of  medicine  in  this  depart- 
ment; professional  books,  books  not  professional — -both  sig- 
nificant; man  and  his  surroundings;  preventive  elements  sim- 
ple ;  all  the  surroundings  of  man  involved ;  the  bodies  we 
have;  what  we  eat;  gastronomy;  the  stomach;  universal  con- 
sanguinity; only  indispensable  organ  to  all  animals;  all  em- 
bracing affinities;  its  ills  the  full  circle  of  torments;  diseased, 
it  is  Pandora's  box ;  catalogue  of  fissures  in  base  of  pyramid  ; 
Tantalus ;  waters  we  drink ;  pure  water  great  hygienic  water ; 
mineral  waters;  nonsense  of  promiscuous  spring  going;  or- 
gans addressed  by  mineral  waters;  what  can  they  do?  great 
impression  made  first  on  digestive  machinery ;  real  use  great 
new  impression;  indiscriminate  application  to  diseases  absurd; 
great  mineral  water,  rationally  medicated  pure  water;  Dr. 
Struve;  factitious  mineral  waters;  preferable  to  natural; 
fabulous  powers  of  natural ;  mysterious  and  inexplicable 
qualities  suspicious;  special  pleading  of  particular  advocates; 
how  in  bronchial  diseases ;  mucous  surfaces,  etc. ;  in  other 
diseases ;  great  water,  pure  water,  assisted  by  all  surround- 
ings; air  we  breathe;  pure  air  greatest  prophylactic  ;  sleep; 
heavenly  force  to  cure  and  prevent ;  mind  and  body  both 
saved  by  sleep;  what  we  wear;  importance  of  philosophy  of 
clothes;  despotisms  and  follies  of  husk-man's  instincts; 
clothes  as  preventives ;  ignorance,  if  true  philosophy  of 
clothes;  vice,  crime  of  fashionable  dressing;  slavery  to  con- 
ventionalisms in  dress ;  sin  ;  when  will  we  wake  up ;  what  we 
do;  hygiene  of  work;  virtues  of  work;  medicine  of  work; 
of  all  exercise,  saving  elements;  varieties;  active;  passive; 
all  have  special  ends;  discriminate  use  of;  on  the  side  of  the 
soul,  great  world  of  prophylactic  powers;  closes  the  circle 


CONTEXTS.  61 


PAGE 

man  on  this  subject ;  involves  all  his  surroundings  of  body 
and  soul;  extent  of  this  one  attribute  of  the  god  of  medicine 
represented  by  his  daughter;  he  represents  all;  medical  pro- 
fession not  confined  to  cobbling  humanity;  not  restricted  to 
pill-driving;  it  is  great  to  prevent  disease,  greater  to  cure  when 
in  existence;  ^Esculapius  personification  of  all  powers;  Hy- 
geia  must  lean  on  him;  all  are  parts  of  one  great  whole — 
Anatomy, 'Physiology,  Pathology,  Hygiene;  pillars  of  one 
grand  temple ;  equal  in  significance  all ;  unity,  spirit  of  the 
world ..  537 


BOOK  ILL— ANTAEUS  THE  GIANT. 

CHAPTER   I. 

THE  MOUNTAIN  TELLING  ITS  WHOLE  STORY  OF  FATE  TO  MAN,  CREEP- 
ING IN  HIS  BONES,  BOILING  IN  HI8  BLOOD,  FLASHING  IN  HIS 
URAIN. 

The  man  of  poetry  and  fable;  man  of  present  hour  different; 
rather  a  failure;  vulturous  scavenger  sinking  toward  annihila- 
tion; man  primeval;  Methuselah;  man  once  tasted  the  life  ever- 
lasting, is  now  a  toad-stool;  threescore  and  ten  hold  him;  gone 
stomach  and  loins;  some  good  men  in  modern  times;  anatomy 
and  physiology  of  Methuselah;  wisdom  of  myths;  paradises 
and  falls  of  the  races;  instincts  of  the  soul;  men  still  turn  to 
those  beautiful  dreams;  mournful  Egypts;  heavenly  Canaans; 
vague  longings  have  eternal  radicles;  fallen  splendor;  "me- 
mory will  bring  back  the  feeling;"  have  the  doctrines  of  de- 
spair a  necessary  origin  in  the  nature  of  things?  sins,  falls, 
sufferings;  is  he  lost?  sorrowful  garden;  age  of  gold  de- 
parted; crushed  giant;  a  broken-hearted  Adam;  will  the 
wrathful  sword  flame  on?  is  all  gone?  vain  efforts  of  thou- 
sands of  years;  is  this  a  correct  rendering  of  the  ways  of 
Providence  to  men?  where  does  disease  come  from  ?  catalogues 
of  infirmities ;  death's  bill-of-fare  ;  best  medical  treatise ;  best 
doctor;  is  man  a  likeness  of  the  world?  living  soul;  what  is 
the  world?  dogmas  of  death  ;  dragon  fights;  mournful  posi- 
tion; lives  in  tombs;  sticks  to  the  past;  will  he  ever  look  into 
the  future  ?  a  small  number  of  world-wide  men  ;  only  reform- 
ers, only  true  lovers  of  humanity;  had  no  past;  marched 
straight  forward  to  future;  inspired;  shall  they  speak  to  the 
deal  and  dead  always  ?  their  words  are  seed ;  from  the  pro- 
phets of  regeneration  turn  to  the  now  extant  individual;  is 
the  man  of  the  present  hour  plus,  minus,  or  zero  ?  is  he  ful- 
filling the  divine  economy,  or  playing  the  fool  ?  at  2.17J  where 
will  he  land?  with  greasy  and  hypertrophied  liver,  with  can- 
cerous stomach,  effete  blood,  gouty  feet,  and  tuberculated 
lungs,  hadn't  he  better  stop  under  the  first  shade-tree  and  per- 


62  CONTENTS. 


;  PAGE 

form  a  prayerful  self-analysis?  if  there  be  no  water  near  him, 
let  him  perform  his  ablutions  with  sand,  in  manner  and  form 
prescribed  by  the  Koran;  his  Mother  Nature,  great  benevolent 
cow,  for  him  the  rebel,  has  dry  dugs,  hollow  horn,  and  wolf  in 
the  tail;  grass,  fresh  grass,  salvation  through  grass';  if  a  run 
at  grass  won't  cure  him,  you  need  try  nothing  else,  (see  N.  M. 
on  diseased  and  worn-out  horses) ;  right  about,  face,  oh  dragon- 
torn  sinner;  must  leave  the  cauldrons  in  which  you  boil,  leave 
your  hot-beds  of  vice  and  luxury,  towns  and  cities  ;  dream  no 
more  of  the  flesh-pots  of  Egypt,  or  the  delicious  leeks  of  the 
Nile;  with  muffled  drum  and  trailing  arms,  forward,  march! 
TOWARD  God;  too  long  wandering  from  Paradise;  flaming 
sword  extinguished ;  may  re-enter  the  hallowed  haunts  of 
sound  digestion  and  perennial  youth  ;  longevity;  golden  rules 
of  health;  may  stay  in  the  body  a  hundred,  possibly  a  thou- 
sand years — "CERTAINLY  A  FEW  BAYS  ;"  body  of  man  a  divine 
crucible;  universe  the  ore  of  gold;  fire  up,  but  beware;  modern 
physical  degeneracy  ;  clear  case ;  comparative  longevity  of  an- 
cient and  modern  man;  Methuselah  ;  views  of  Haller  and  Buffbn 
on  the  long  life ;  their  explanation ;  Hufeland  on  Methuselah ; 
Hensler's  views ;  the  extreme  ancient  year ;  present,  year  of 
Eastern  nations;  the  patriarchs;  Methuselah  reduced  to  near 
200  years  ;  period  of  Abraham  ;  lives  of  patriarchs ;  Hebrew 
record ;  Hufeland's  tables ;  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  etc  ; 
Egyptians,  ages  of;  Chinese;  Greeks;  Romans;  catalogues 
of  ancient  worthies;  of  Roman  women;  actresses;  records  of 
Pliny;  census,  time  of  Vespasian;  Ulpian  bills  of  mortality; 
Rome  compared  with  London ;  duration  of  life  the  same  in 
time  of  Moses,  Greeks,  and  Romans ;  probably  men  live  as 
long  as  ever ;  views  of  Flourens ;  ordinary,  extraordinary 
life ;  Buffon's  views — life  100  years  ;  Mailer's  views — life  200 
years  ;  Thomas  Parr,  Hufeland's  account  of  him;  Henry  Jen- 
kins; Bacon  and  Hufeland's  list  of  veterans;  ages;  vocations 
of  the  same ;  facts  of  life  of  same ;  habits  of  life ;  Anglo- 
Americans,  can  they  be  acclimatized  ?  the  negro  race,  Dungli- 
son  and  Prichard  on  ;  Hnmboldt  on  Indians;  Hufeland's  con- 
clusions on  duration  of  human  life ;  Haller's  conclusions ; 
general  formula;  classes  of  mankind  who  live  longest;  em- 
perors, popes,  monks,  and  hermits;  doctors  shortest  livers; 
table  of  Wilson;  countries  most  favorable  to  longevity;  gen- 
eral conclusions  synopsized ;  who,  how,  when,  where  ?  all 
facts  of  long  life;  longest  livers  always  followers  of  nature; 
conditions  of  long  life;  country  life;  city  and  town  life; 
tables  of  Haller  and  Hufeland  ;  Haller  and  Buffon  on  laws  of 
longevity;  formulae;  Hufeland  on  same;  life  should  be  200 
years;  Flourens  on  the  physiological  law;  ages  of  animals; 
laws  of  growth;  gestation;  duration  of;  will  live  eight,  or 
seven,  or  five  times  as  long  as  they  grow;  why  the  rarity  of 
patriarchs;  death's  regular  harvest;  is  man  the  giant  Antseus? 
the  doctrine  of  attainability  of  great  age  demonstrable  ;  agree- 
able hope  inspired ;  everybody  may  live  to  be  as  old  as  Methu- 
selah ;  historical  side  of  subject;  scientific  and  physiological 
side;  live  200  years  if  you  wish;  history,  science;  means  of 


CONTENTS.  63 

PAGE 

attaining  age  of  patriarchs ;  gist  and  soul  of  the  fable  of  An- 
tasus ;  stick  to  Mother  Nature;  recitation  of  the  records  who 
lived  longest,  how,  why,  from  Methuselah  down:  modern 
tables  approach  ancient;  table  of  Easton  of  Salisbury,  Eng- 
land; several  lives  185;  regular  record  of  courts,  and  Har- 
vey's post-mortem ;  habits  of  life  all  point  in  one  direction ; 
nature ;  open  air ;  fishing,  swimming ;  daily-labor ;  digestive 
organs  treated  with  consideration  by  them  all;  modern  patri- 
archs, sailors,  soldiers,  workers-of  some  kind;  hopeful  record; 
only  condition  indispensable,  touch  the  earth ;  material  side  of 
question  all  in  this ;  soul,  or  spirit  side  of  question  through 
the  sire  of  Antaeus.  Poseidon,  who  was  a  "  personification  of  the 
fertilizing  power  of  water" — a  symbol  of  thought,  spirit,  genius 
— creator  of  the  horse,  and  great  water-god ;  on  the  side  of 
spirit  what  comes  of  the  fable ;  same  story  from  philosophers, 
saints,  anatomists,  poets,  moralists,  especially  physicians  ;  tem- 
perance and  virtue  absolutely  the  only  conditions  of  PHYSICAL 
REGENERATION  ;  perfect  rectitude  a  preventive  for  smallpox 
and  ague ;  the  life  of  man  may  become  cleaner,  brighter, 
sweeter,  and  certainly  LONGER  ;  the  sum  total  of  all  prophe- 
cies, of  all  philosophies,  of  all  religions,  all  sciences,  natural, 
supernatural,  is  the  body  of  man  a  perfectly  sound  implement, 
absolutely  plastic  clay  in  the  FINGERS  of  the  PURE,  INTELLI- 
GENT, LOVING  SOUL;  secret  of  the  universe  told;  great  problem 
of  nature  solved  by  the  physical  regeneration  and  salvation  of 
the  human  race;  the  Mountain  the  first  shore;  the  first  LIFE- 
THEATRE  ;  the  sun  first  kisses,  dawn  first  bathes  the  Moun- 
tain; lo !  for  the  Son  of  Man,  is  it  coming  day? 567 

CHAPTER  II.  ' 

PAN   A    SYMBOL    OF   THE    UNIVERSE. 

Is  nature  a  unit?  ancient  atomic  theory;  strange  coincidence; 
modern  atom ;  what  has  the  intellect  done  for  the  atom,  from 
Leucippus  to  Dalton?  souls  of  great  dreamers  identical  in 
their  instincts  ;  logic  of  nature ;  primordial  types  ;  fascination 
of  the  atom;  temptation  to  brave  spirits  to  exhaust ;  struggles 
from  Democritus  to  Schleiden  ;  ancient  " atom  impenetrable;" 
modern  cell ;  all  organisms  necessarily  microscopic  in  struc- 
ture ;  all  organisms  come  from  infusoria ;  everything  must 
flow;  Descartes'  vortices  celestial;  Cuvier's  vortices  terres- 
trial; perpetual  motion  of  the  cell:  life  and  death  dance; 
motion — motion  everywhere ;  organic,  inorganic,  imponder- 
able; organs,  functions ;  metamorphoses;  immaterial  essence; 
naturel  history;  supernatural  history;  the  atom,  the  soul; 
silent  gliding ;  heavenly  soaring ;  what  is  pain  ?  what  is  dis- 
ease ?  of  the  sound  cell ;  diseased  cell ;  physiology,  pathology  ; 
atom  sound;  atom  morbid  and  morbific;  origin  of  evil;  the 
cell  and  general  pathology;  great  functions,  great  lesions; 
in  nature  all  things  united ;  the  cell  the  imponderable ;  old 
actors  in  the  tragedies  of  life  and  death ;  the  ether,  the  heat, 
the  light;  normal,  abnormal  life;  jokes  of  nature;  eternal 


64  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

change;  death;  body  of  man  bag  of  water;  vibrations;  pon- 
derable and  imponderable;  health,  disease;  renovation;  re- 
juvenescence, philosophy  of;  the  cell  the  focus  of  all  renewal  ; 
the  fountain  of  youth  ;  implements  of  renovation,  all  medical 
science  and  all  nature;  chronic  disease;  change  of  habitat: 
vicious  despotisms  of  local  causes ;  voice  of  nature,  come  to 
me,  come  to  the  woods,  frequent  the  haunts  of  Pan ;  renova- 
tion, gospel  of;  "primordial  utricle;"  small  details — "no 
great,  no  small;"  Malpighi,  Ehrenberg,  Brown,  Mohl;  Gali- 
leo, Kepler,  Newton,  Herschel;  brain  of  Shakspeare;  Monas 
termo  ;  Pan,  the  cell ;  details  of  things  cared  for  on  Olympus  ; 
the  mean  and  vulgar  represented  as  well  as  elegant  and  divine ; 
great  forms  of  matter  ;  kingly  and  queenly  deities ;  lowly  gods, 
big  heads,  small  heads;  Jupiter  and  Minerva,  Pan  and  Vul- 
can: no  comfort  in  the  world  without  Pan  and  Vulcan;  the 
god  of  "pastoral  life"  and  god  of  furnaces  indispensable; 
trumps  of  the  hour  ;  iron  and  milk  ;  thanks  and  eternal  honors 
due  to  the  humble  deities — they  superintend  the  drudgeries, 
and  make  earth  comfortable;  style  of  the  god  of  the  woods; 
not  prepossessing,  not  beautiful ;  uses,  ends,  ghastly  needs ; 
represents  the  great  kingdoms  of  man's  both  lower  and  higher 
nature ;  significance  of  the  clever  ugly  god ;  cloven  foot,  ra- 
diant face,  leopard's  skin;  Pan  a  symbol  of  the  universe; 
grateful  worship  due  to  this  god  of  the  woods  ;  let  him  flourish, 
and  the  sacrifices  of  the  seekers  of  renovation  and  youth  shall 
burn  forever  on  his  altars ;  god  of  the  woods  symbol  of  the 
cell,  original  germ,  always  perfect;  represents  the  formative 
nutrient  process  of  the  organic  world  ;  the  great  herald  of  the 
cell,  the  microscope,  and  the  philosophy  of  rejuvenescence 607 


ATLAS. 


Now  sees  the  top  of  Atlas  as  he  flies, 
Whose  brawny  back  supports  the  starry  skies  ; 
Atlas,  whose  head  with  piny  forests  crowned, 
Is  beaten  by  the  wind,  with  foggy  vapors  bound. 
Snow  hides  his  shoulders ;  from  beneath  his  chin 
The  founts  of  rolling  streams  their  race  begin. 

VIEGIL. 


6*  65 


A  potter,  who  understood  neither  Latin  nor  Greek,  was  the  first, 
who,  toward  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  dared  to  say  at  Paris, 
and  in  the  face  of  all  the  learned  doctors,  that  fossil  shells  were  real 
shells,  deposited  formerly  by  the  sea  in  the  places  where  they  were 
then  found ;  that  animals,  and  especially  fishes,  had  given  to  the 
figured  stones  all  their  diiferent  figures;  and  he  defied  all  the  school 
of  Aristotle  to  attack  his  proofs. — Histoire  de  V Academic  des  Sciences, 
annee  1720,  p.  5. 

FONTENELLE. 

This  potter,  who  defied  the  school  of  Aristotle,  was  Bernard  Pal- 
issy,  "as  great  a  philosopher  as  Nature  alone  can  produce;"  as  was 
said  by  a  writer  of  his  own  time,  "a  man  of  marvelously  quick  and 
acute  mind." 

FLOURENS. 

I  have  never  had  any  other  book  than  heaven  and  earth,  which  is 
known  to  every  one,  and  it  is  given  to  all  to  read  this  beautiful  book. 

And  because  there  are  found  stones  filled  with  shells,  even  at  the 
summits  of  the  highest  mountains,  you  must  not  think  that  these 
shells  are  formed,  as  every  one  says,  by  nature  pleasing  to  do  something 
new.  When  I  have  closely  examined  the  forms  of  stones,  I  find  that 
none  of  them  could  have  taken  the  form  of  shells,  or  of  any  other 
animal,  if  the  animal  itself  had  not  constructed  its  form.  We  must 
conclude  that  before  these  said  shells  were  petrified,  the  fishes  that 
formed  them  were  living  in  the  water;  and  that  both  the  water  and 
the  fish  were  petrified  at  the  same  time,  and  of  these  there  can  be  no 
doubt. 

CEuvREs  DE  BERNARD  PALISSY.    1575. 

There  are  shapes  in  the  earth  unfinished;  things  that  are  the  forms 
of  life  without  ever  having  been  the  recipients  of  life.  They  are  called 
fossils. — Opera  Philosophica  et  Mineralogica.  1721. 

EMANUEL  SWEDENBORO. 


66 


554. — The  earth  has  without  doubt  originated  according  to  the 
laws  of  the  polyhedron,  which  represents  in  the  nearest  manner  the 
globe.  The  polyhedron  of  the  globe  is  the  rhomboidal  dodecahedron. 

555. — The  land  cannot  therefore  have  an  equal  elevation  every-4 
where  above  the  water,  because  the  crystal  consists  of  edges,  angles, 
and  surfaces  or  sides.  The  mountain  tops  are  probably  the  angles, 
the  mountain  ridges  or  chains  the  edges,  the  plains  the  lateral  sur- 
faces of  the  crystal. 

557. — Although  the  earth  may  be  regarded  as  originally  a  crystal, 
that  consists  of  level  surfaces,  edges,  and  angles,  wide  fissures  may 
still  have  originated  between  its  laminae,  such  as  we  see  in  large 
crystals  of  felspar.  These  fissures  or  gaps  are  the  primary  valleys. 

558.' — There  must  be,  therefore,  valleys  or  parallel  valleys,  which 
probably  extend  for  hundreds  of  miles,  and  are  many  miles  deep — 
longitudinal  valleys. 

559. — The  laminae  of  the  earth  had  without  doubt  transverse  fis- 
sures, which  have  been  called  hidden  passages.  These  transverse 
fissures  are  the  transverse  valleys,  which  are  consequently  less  long 
and  deep. 

560. — The  mountains  originate  of  themselves.  They  do  not  prop- 
erly originate,  but  valleys  only  originate,  and  the  ridges  of  the  crys- 
tal laminae  afford  the  mountains.  The  mountains  have  not  been 
originally  upheaved  above  the  surface  of  the  earth,  nor  the  valleys 
depressed.  A  valley,  which  is  several  miles  broad,  must  originally 
have  been  several  miles  deep,  and  the  mountain  wall  consequently 
several  miles  high.  The  earth  at  its  origin  was  a  cloven  and  jagged 
polyhedron,  a  polyhedric  star,  such  as  the  moon  is  still. 

561. — The  mountains  are  not,  therefore,  large  crystals,  which 
crystallized  above  the  surface  of  the  earth.  They  are  only  crystal 
laminae,  and  may  be  as  irregular  as  possible  in  form,  for  they  are 
ruptured  crystals. 

The  constituent  forms  of  the  earth  are  consequently  arranged  in 
laminse.  What  in  the  crystal  is  called  the  cleavage  of  the  laminae, 
is  in  the  earth  stratification.  The  strike  of  the  strata  combined  with 
their  dip  determines  the  crystal  nucleus  of  the  earth. — Physiophilo- 
sophy. 

OKEN. 


In  his  strivings,  who  arrived  at,  the  clearest  light, — who  came 
nearest  the  core  or  heart  of  the  truth, — the  humble  Potter,  the  pious 
Mystic,  or  the  philosophical  Poet? 

The  true  Naturalist  should  not  possess  in  excess  any  spiritual 
endowment.  With  too  much  imagination  and  sensibility,  he  floats 
off  into  the  region  of  Transcendental  Idealism,  intoxicated  with  the 
gorgeous  ineffability  of  the  "grotto  of  dreams;"  or  overwhelmed  by 
the  infinite  suggestiveness  of  Nature  which  must  remain  forever  unutter- 
able and  incommunicable  by  words,  he  babbles  like  one  mad.  On  the 
other  hand,  with  too  much  of  the  senses  and  understanding,  he  congeals 
Creation  into  the  "concrete" — under  the  "wintry  moonlight  of  the 
Intellect."  and  the  profound  necessities  revealed  in  the  inseparable 
connection  of  Life,  Form,  and  Substance,  are  lost  in  a  ghastly  for- 
mula of  Mechanism,  Chemistry,  and  Death.  The  Naturalist  must 
not  be  the  bird  that  never  alights  on  his  feet,  and  sleeps  on  his  wings, 
but  rather  the  mole  of  the  ground,  or  true  creature  of  the  earth, 
penetrated  and  held  by  earthly  affinities. 

Let  him,  in  the  blackness  that  enshrouds  him,  creep  like  the  humble 
caterpillar,  measuring-worm,  or  serpent  prone,  touching  Nature  lov- 
ingly on  all  her  points,  rather  than  leap  like  the  salient  grasshopper 
into  unknown  spaces,  or  plunge  like  an  eyeless  fish  through  cavernous 

deeps  of  the  world. 

EGBERT  SMITH. 


68 


ALLEGHANY 


OR 


APPALACHIAN  MOUNTAINS, 


CHAPTER  I. 

GEOLOGY   OF    THE   ALLEGHANY  MOUNTAINS. 

THIS  group  of  mountains  of  the  North  American  Conti- 
nent, also  called  the  Atlantic  range,  as  described  by  some 
geographers,  extends  through  eleven  degrees  of  latitude,  in 
a  direction  nearly  parallel  to,  and  from  fifty  to  one  hundred 
miles  west  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  comprising  a  belt  of  from 
fifty  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  wide.* 

Other  geographers  do  not  give  so  extensive  a  range  to  this 
chain,  but  describe  it  as  extending  from  thirty-five  to  forty- 
one  degrees  north  latitude,  between  the  mouth  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  and  the  source  of  the  Alabama  ;f  while  others 
represent  it  as  extending  from  thirty-three  to  fifty-three  de- 
grees of  north  latitude.  It  is  again  stated  that  the  Appa- 
lachian range  "begins  in  the  northern  part  of  Alabama  and 
terminates  in  the  valley  of  the  Hudson  ;"J  and  also  that  it 
extends  "from  the  Gulf  of  the  St.  Lawrence  to  middle  Ala- 
bama, fifteen  hundred  miles  in  length,  and  from  one  hundred 
to  two  hundred  miles  broad.  "§  The  most  recent  and  elabo- 

*  Malte  Brun.         f  Phys.  Atlas.         J  Drake.         %  H.  D.  Rogers. 

69 


70  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

rate  Gazetteer  describes  it  as  "that  vast  mountain  system  in 
the  southeastern  part  of  North  America,  extending,  under 
various  names,  from  Maine  southwestward  to  the  northern 
part  of  Alabama.  In  New  Hampshire,  near  the  northern 
termination  of  this  chain,  it  is  less  than  one  hundred  miles 
from  the  Atlantic  coast,  but  it  gradually  diverges  as  it  ad- 
vances southward,  so  that  toward  its  southern  extremity  it 
is  about  three  hundred  miles  from  the  sea."* 

In  these  delineations  there  is  a  discrepancy  in  geographic 
and  topographic  description  of  the  continuance  of  lines  of 
elevation,  necessarily  involving  also  mooted  questions  as  to 
the  unbroken  geological  continuity  of  formations ;  geological 
equivalency  being  affirmed  by  some,  while  it  is  alleged  that 
the  superficial  geology  is  manifestly  different,  whatever  the 
more  profound  and  invisible  ranges  of  telluric  fracture,  or 
folding  together  with  geological  metamorphosis,  might  reveal ; 
the  statement  being  distinctly  recorded,  that  "the  different 
ridges  are  distinguished  from  each  other  not  only  in  external 
features,  but  also  in  their  geology."  This  fact  alone,  leaving 
out  the  manifest  identity  of  formations  as  geological  equiva- 
lents, would  account  for  the  disagreement  in  geographic  no- 
menclature, and  the  apparent  error  of  generalization;  the 
separate  portions  of  the  ranges  being  considered  dissimilar 
in  mineralogical  composition,  or,  at  least,  geological  arrange- 
ment of  elements,  and  topographic  characters. 

Certain  associated  groups  of  mountains  would  be  more 
correctly  designated  "geographical  dependencies  of  the 
system." 

Thus,  the  Green  Mountains  of  Yermout  and  the  White 
Mountains  of  New  Hampshire  are  described  as  belonging 
to  this  range. 

They  are  crystalline  in  structure,  and  some  of  their  peaks 
attain  the  elevation  of  6500  feet  above  the  level  of  the  ocean. 
At  the  southwest,  where  the  group  embraces  the  Alleghany, 
Blue  Ridge,  and  Smoky  mountains,  they  also  attain  a  great 

*  J.  T.  Hodge. 


THE    MOUNTAIN.  71 

height,  their  most  considerable  altitude  being  6470  feet  above 
the  sea  level.  This  is  the  height  of  Mount  Mitchell,  in  North 
Carolina,  which  is  also  said  by  some  geographers  to  be  the 
"highest  mountain  summit  east  of  the  Mississippi  River." 
Some  of  these  mountain  ranges,  as  the  Blue  Ridge,  are  also 
composed  of  the  old  metamorphic  strata,  gneiss,  and  altered 
slates,  and  sandstones,  embracing  even  the  formations  char- 
acterized by  the  presence  of  fossils,  or  organic  forms ;  while 
the  principal  part  of  the  belt  of  the  Appalachian  chain  is 
composed  exclusively  of  the  sedimentary  paleozoic  division 
low  in  the  geological  series.  And  thus  from  geological  mu- 
tation, and  consequent  topographic  change,  it  comes  that 
different  members  of  the  chain,  in  the  same  lines  of  continuity 
of  elevation,  are  called  by  different  names  in  the  course  of 
their  range  through  the  United  States. 

Their  height  is  from  two  thousand  five  hundred  to  six 
thousand  feet,  with  an  approximate  average  of  three  thousand 
feet,  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  They  form  a  range  of  hydro- 
graphic  axes,  which  separate  the  waters  that  flow  into  the 
great  interior  valley  of  North  America  and  Gulf  of  Mexico 
from  those  which  flow  over  the  Atlantic  plain  into  that  ocean : 
as  the  Rocky  Mountains,  on  the  west,  separate  those  majestic 
streams  which  flow  to  the  east  and  south  through  the  trough 
of  the  Mississippi  River,  from  the  west  or  Pacific  water-shed. 

In  their  middle  and  southwestern  range,  this  group  of 
mountains,  with  its  large,  rich,  and  fertile  intervening  valleys, 
in  its  transit  through  the  States,  presents  a  series  of  chains, 
or  lines  of  elevation,  with  great  regularity  of  crests  and  ac- 
clivities, and  more  or  less  uniformity  of  geographic  features. 

That  portion  of  the  Appalachian  group,  the  individual 
ranges  of  which  are  called  by  different  names,  east  of  the 
Alleghany  proper,  exhibits  a  series  of  sharp,  symmetrical 
mountains,  presenting  long  lines  of  parallelism,  with  crests 
as  regularly  defined  in  outline  as  the  ridges  of  a  well-plowed 
field,  separated  by  valleys  as  regular  as  furrows  in  the  same. 

Their  crest-lines  display  regular  and  beautiful  horizons, 
which  are  almost  mathematical  lines  for  miles;  while  the 


72  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

valleys  between  the  mountains  show  somewhat  diversified 
surfaces. 

The  mountain  ranges  west  of  the  proper  Alleghany  are 
not  so  regular  and  sharp  in  outline,  and  the  valleys  between 
are  of  a  different  character.  These  ridges,  as  they  are  gen- 
erally styled,  are  also  called  by  different  names  in  separate 
portions  of  their  extent,  even  when  there  is  no  interruption 
of  continuity  of  elevation. 

The  whole  group,  with  its  characteristic  scenery,  its  splen- 
did system  of  foldings  of  the  surface,  or  waves  of  mountain 
and  valley,  upon  minute  exploration,  is  discovered  to  be  in 
strict  conformity  with  the  rock  structure  beneath.  The  to- 
pography of  a  given  portion  of  the  earth's  crust,  with  its 
contour  of  outlines  and  surfaces,  is  necessitated  by  its  geo- 
logy, as  absolutely  as  the  form  of  an  animal's  body  is  fixed 
by  its  skeleton,  or  stony  foundation. 

The  sharp  regular  mountains  east  of  the  Alleghany  itself 
are  formed  of  different  materials,  and  have  a  different  char- 
acter from  the  western  collateral  parallel  ridges.  The  former 
are  made  of  the  larger  and  more  uniform  members  of  the 
geological  series,  those  masses  which  preserve  homogeneous 
mineralogical  composition  through  great  extent  of  their  thick- 
ness, also  sameness  of  mechanical  constitution,  or  strength  of 
substance,  over  large  geometric  areas,  and  exhibit  great  uni- 
formity in  the  style  of  fracture  and  plication  of  the  strata. 

Those  west  of  the  Alleghany  are  more  irregular  and  indefi- 
nite in  their  outlines,  from  the  more  heterogeneous  mineralo- 
gical constitution  and  mechanical  properties  of  the  rocks  of 
that  portion  of  the  group  of  which  they  are  formed. 

What  is  called  especially  the  Alleghany  Mountain  (the 
term  Appalachian  indicating  the  whole  eastern  oceanic  sys- 
tem) is  the  range  of  knobs,  or  irregularly  serrated  edge  of  the 
summit-line  of  that  vast  plateau,  or  elevated  range  of  table 
lands,  (much  more  correctly  designated  ranges  of  alpine 
hills,)  which  forms  the  chain  of  water-sheds  of  the  eastern 
side  of  the  continent.  It  is  formed  of  a  series  of  high  out- 
standing geological  watch-towers,  which  coalesce  in  a  crest- 


THE   MOUNTAIN.  73 

line,  irregular,  undulating  and  zigzag,  and  when  approached 
closely  from  the  east,  give  the  appearance  of  a  chain  of  sepa- 
rate, short  mountains,  and  knobs  almost  isolated,  towering 
above  the  region  at  their  bases ;  but  approached  from  a  greater 
distance,  or  from  the  west,  present  horizons  of  straight  lines 
or  gentle  undulations.  The  depressions  between  these  knobs 
are  called  gaps  of  the  mountain.  They  are  of  every  shape 
and  form,  from  simple  flexures  in  the  general  line  of  trend, 
scooped  out  depressions,  or  notches  cut  into  the  side  of  the 
mountain  mass,  to  short,  abruptly  terminating,  or  irregular, 
tortuous  and  divided  valleys,  the  bottoms  of  which  are  the 
conduits,  or  rocky  beds  of  the  streams  which  flow  southeast 
from  the  steep  escarpment  of  the  mountain.  These  gaps  or 
gorges  are  sometimes  cut  into  the  mountain  several  miles, 
and  even  clear  through  the  entire  mountain  mass,  as  in  the 
gaps  of  some  of  the  considerable  creeks  and  rivers.  They 
penetrate  the  coal-bearing  rocks,  giving  to  the  eastern  margin 
of  the  great  bituminous  coal-field  a  notched  or  irregular  rim, 
as  points  of  the  coal-seams  with  accompanying  rocks  stretch 
out  toward  the  knobs,  forming  the  sinuous  and  jagged  edge 
of  the  great  basin. 

The  knobs,  or  swells  of  the  mountain  themselves,  are  stra- 
tified piles  of  rocks  left  between  the  deep  cuts  or  gorges  of 
denudation  made  into  the  side  of  the  elevated  mass  of  broken 
heights  called  the  Alleghany  Mountains.  The  mineral  masses 
forming  the  summits  of  the  high  buttresses  or  outstanding 
peaks  of  the  mountain  are  constituted  of  the  large  group  of 
silicious  rocks  at  the  base  of  the  coal  series,  including  the 
conglomerate,  or  its  representative  in  coarse  sandstone  layers, 
forming  the  floor  of  the  coal  measures. 

The  gaps  referred  to  between  these  peaks  are  simply  deep 
cuts,  or  sinuosities  gouged  by  the  denuding  forces  out  of  the 
groups  of  rocks  which  make  the  mountain,  and  which  are 
here  found  with  gentle  dips,  in  some  places  approaching 
nearly  to  the  horizontal  position. 

Westward  of  this  range  of  knobs  and  gaps,  and  between 

7 


74  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

them  and  the  next  lines  of  elevation,  forming  ridges  called 
by  different  names,  the  region  presents  the  character  of  ele- 
vated broken  and  irregular  valleys.  The  surfaces  of  these 
valleys  (which,  however,  can  scarcely  with  propriety  be  called 
valleys)  is  constituted  of  a  series  of  hills,  separated  by  deep- 
washed  gulleys  and  ravines,  of  every  conceivable  shape  and 
dimension,  from  steep  and  precipitous  gorges  to  gentle  and 
flowing  vales. 

These  hills  have  something  of  a  mountainous  character, 
and  the  whole  surface  between  the  highest  ranges  of  the 
ridges  and  mountains  is  sometimes,  though  very  incorrectly, 
called  "the  Mountains." 

The  whole  group  of  Appalachians,  with  its  intervening 
valleys,  has  for  its  bone-structure  or  skeleton,  that  magnifi- 
cent system  of  paleozoic  or  fossiliferous  rocks  which  are  so 
largely  developed  in  North  America,  and  which  have  scarcely 
a  parallel  in  any  portion  of  the  earth's  crust  yet  subjected  to 
geological  scrutiny. 

To  this  immense  mass  of  sedimentary  deposits,  embraced 
between  the  horizon  of  the  crystalline,  hypozoic,  or  gneissic 
rocks  and  the  top  of  the  coal  series,  the  general  term,  "Ap- 
palachian," has  been  applied  by  some  geologists.  "  This  series 
of  rocks,  more  than  thirty-five  thousand  feet  thick  in  some  dis- 
tricts, is  made  up  of  a  number  of  separate  formations,  cha- 
racterized by  distinctive  features  in  mineral  composition  and 
organic  contents,"  revealing  in  majestic  hieroglyphics  the 
history  of  an  immeasurable  chain  of  phenomena  occurring 
through  unreckoned  centuries  of  time,  in  an  unbroken  sequence 
of  deposits,  closely  united  by  a  continuous  affiliation  of  or- 
ganic forms  and  general  geological  characters. 

"  The  whole  pile  is  the  demonstrable  record  of  an  immea- 
surable and  continuous  epoch,  the  deposit  of  one  vast  oceanic 
basin."* 

As  the  strata  are  in  the  main  conformable,  they  constitute 
a  series,  divisible  into  a  number  of  separate  members,  or  for- 

*  Rogers. 


THE    MOUNTAIN.  75 

mations,  which  preserve  their  nrineralogical  and  fossilifer- 
ous  identity  over  extensive  geographic  surfaces. 

They  vary  from  a  few  feet  to  several  thousand  feet  in  thick- 
ness, and  generally  show  a  uniformity  of  mineralogical  elements 
through  their  entire  thickness.*  Thus  in  one  formation  the 
silicious  element  predominates,  presenting  a  series  of  hard 
indestructible  quartzose  strata ;  whilst,  in  another,  the  softer 
aluminous  element  forms  a  series  of  shaly,  slaty,  or  argilla- 
ceous layers. 

Sometimes  the  calcareous  or  lime  material  alone  predomi- 
nates, and  is  found  in  ponderously  stratified  masses. 

The  coals,  or  fossil  carbon  formations,  make  (see  vertical  sec- 
tion) the  upper  portion  of  this  series,  and  are  mingled  with  all 
the  other  elements  in  a  stratified  group  of  rocks.  The  mode 
and  style  of  distribution  of  this  pile  of  rocks,  (forming  the  sur- 
face of  the  geological  tally-board  of  the  ages,)  where  it  extends 
over  the  different  States,  is  a  chapter  of  beauty  and  wonder. 
Being  all  of  them  mechanical  sedimentary  rocks,  and  depo- 
sited originally,  with  exception  of  the  local  undulatory  and 
oblique  lines  of  original  deposit,  in  a  horizontal  position, 
constituting  vast  geological  scales  or  Iamina3  on  the  surface 
of  the  globe,  they  are  now  found  folded  and  wrinkled,  the 
strata  reposing  at  every  angle  of  inclination,  and  presenting 
a  system  of  gigantic  waves  or  lines  of  elevation,  running 
parallel  and  with  great  regularity  for  hundreds  of  miles. 

They  present  a  topography  of  the  most  curious  and  inte- 
resting character  in  the  middle  and  eastern  portions  of  the 
range,  forming  long,  narrow,  keel-boat  shaped  valleys,  with 
abrupt  cul-de-sac  terminations,  surrounded  by  high,  sharp 
mountains  running  like  immense  levees  around  them,  and 
which  are  only  broken  by  the  gorges  of  the  streams  which 
flow  through  this  region. 

This  is  the  wild  and  picturesque  scenery  of  the  Appalachian 
mountains  and  valleys,  the  gaps  of  whose  beautiful  rivers  are 
so  celebrated  by  the  Traveler,  Artist,  and  Poet. 

*  See  vertical  section  and  description  of  separate  formations. 


76  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

These  waves  of  rocks  are  called  by  geologists  "  anticlinal," 
and  the  troughs  between  are  called  "synclinal  axes,"  and 
everywhere  the  connection  between  topography  and  geology 
is  revealed.  Where  the  rocks  are  soft  and  destructible  we 
are  presented  with  valleys  of  denudation,  or  washing,  and 
where  the  rocks  are  harder  and  less  destructible,  mountains 
are  left,  monuments  of  the  war  of  the  elements. 

Where  the  stata  are  spread  out  with  gentle  inclinations,  or 
horizontal,  there  are  no  mountain  ranges,  and  the  valleys  are 
drains  or  washes  cut  through  the  strata,  the  hills  between 
being  simply  piles  of  rocks  left  by  the  denuding  forces. 

Where  they  are  folded  and  wrinkled,  the  appearance  and 
disappearance  of  the  same  formations,  at  different  points, 
always  show  the  same  topography,  as  well  as  geology. 
Thus  all  the  mountains  in  the  eastern  portion  of  the  range 
are  formed  of  two  or  three  groups  of  rocks  brought  to  the 
surface  by  frequent  foldings  of  the  strata,  whilst  the  valleys 
between  are  also  made  of  a  few  formations  which  are  as  con- 
stantly cut  out  and  washed  away.* 

Thus  in  this  apparently  much  diversified  range  of  moun- 
tains and  valleys,  we  have  a  few  rocks  continually  appearing 
and  disappearing,  the  out-cropping  edges  of  the  different 
fractured  foldings  forming  long,  narrow,  parallel  belts, — the 
less  destructible  masses  projecting  in  mountain  lines,  the  more 
destructible  swept  away  out  of  the  valleys. 

This  remarkable  folding  or  plication  of  the  strata  is  the 
most  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the  geology  of  the  Ap- 
palachian group  of  rocks  and  mountains.  Apparently  a  con- 
fusion of  interminable  waves,  arches,  and  troughs,  of  anticlinal 
elevations  and  synclinal  depressions,  with  continual  bending 
and  twisting  of  the  strata, — there  is  still  a  regularity  and  a 
system,  an  order  of  relative  position  which  is  never  violated. 

The  foldings  of  this  portion  of  the  skin  of  the  world  have 
but  a  few  general  formulae  in  their  mode  of  development 
and  distribution.  They  have  a  southwestern  direction,  with 

*  See  transverse  section 


THE    MOUNTAIN.  77 

slightly  deviating  lines;  some  geologists  having  numbered 
and  described  specifically  the  alterations  of  the  line  of  trend. 
They  are  from  a  few  miles  to  several  hundred  long,  and  as  a 
general  fact  show  steeper  dips  on  their  western  sides,  while 
they  decrease  in  abruptness  of  inclination  on  both  sides  of 
lines  of  fracture,  from  east  to  west,  or  in  a  line  transverse  to 
the  line  of  fracture,  thus  demonstrating  that  the  violence  of 
the  forces  which  have  ruptured  the  strata  diminishes  most  ob- 
viously proceeding  westward  toward  the  central  line  of  the 
continent.  This  will  be  seen  by  contrasting  the  gentle  arches 
of  the  bituminous  coal-measures  with  the  abrupt  and,  in  some 
places,  vertical  and  collapsed,  even  overturned  and  crushed 
axes  of  the  lower  part  of  the  series,  as  exhibited  in  the  eastern 
range  of  mountains  approaching  the  great  foci  of  volcanic 
or  earthquake  action. 

One  region  reveals  violent  crimping,  wrinkling,  or  foldings, 
with  steep  dips,  and  great  crushing  of  the  strata  from  flexures 
and  fractures,  showing  evidence  of  vast  oscillations,  followed 
by  fissures  and  chasms,  splitting  and  rending  of  rocks,  with 
injections  of  trap  and  crystalline  metamorphosis  of  sand  layers 
and  mud  masses  :  the  other  showing  increased  respect  for  the 
law  of  gravitation,  with  preponderance  of  inertia,  allowing 
the  rocks  to  repose  with  gentle  dips,  or  in  horizontal  position, 
— comparative  immobility  or  sleep  of  the  elements  predomi- 
nating over  extensive  ranges  of  quiet  and  undisturbed  basins, 
the  waves  gradually  subsiding  from  violent  tossings  to  gen- 
tlest undulations,  and  dying  away  into  absolute  repose. 

It  is  a  natural  inquiry,  Where  do  these  rocks  belong? 
what  are  they  ?  and,  is  the  geological  structure  of  this  Con- 
tinent the  same  as  that  of  the  Old  World  ?  Have  we  the 
same  order  of  position  of  mineral  masses,  the  same  lithological 
characters,  and  organic  remains  ? 

Many  American  observers,  struck  with  the  beauty  and 
perfection  of  the  classification  of  the  English  geologists, 
have  been  explaining  the  geology  of  this  country  by  reference 
to  that  classification. 

They  seem  to  be  successful  in  identifying  species  of  organic 
7* 


78  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

remains,  and  have  satisfied  themselves  as  to  the  parallelism  of 
the  formations  of  Europe  and  America,  having,  as  they  sup- 
pose, made  out  the  geological  equivalents  on  both  continents. 

In  this  category  are  a  number  of  the  authors  of  the  different 
geological  surveys  of  the  United  States,  two  of  whom,*  after 
enumerating  several  species  of  fossils  answering  descriptions 
in  the  New  York  reports  of  what  they  call  their  "  Clinton" 
group,  and  also  in  Murchison's  silurian  system, — say,  "If  our 
fossils  be  really  identical  in  species, — of  which  we  entertain 
no  doubt, — then  the  rocks  in  question  may  be  referred  to  the 
upper  part  of  the  Lower  Silurian  system,  and  may  be  consi- 
dered the  western  representatives  of  the  '  Clinton  group  of 
New  York'  and  the  '  Caradoc  of  England.'"  This  is  arriv- 
ing quickly  but  surely  at  a  sweeping  generalization. 

They  then  proceed  to  describe  their  fossils,  identifying 
many  with  the  fossils  of  New  York,  and  also  of  Europe, 
establishing — as  they  think,  without  doubt — their  identity 
•with  the  Silurian  and  Devonian  groups,  together  with  the 
Carboniferous  limestone  ;  and  this  also  appears  to  have  been 
the  opinion  of  M.  De  Yerneuil,  after  his  visit  to  the  localities 
mentioned. 

On  the  subject  of  the  identity  of  American  and  European 
rocks,  the  list  of  species  now  accumulated  is  a  most  interest- 
ing achievement. 

Mr.  Lyell  constantly  speaks  of  our  rocks  as  referable  to 
the  classification  of  Europe.  In  his  travels  through  this 
country,  the  terms  "  Silurian  group  of  the  Transition  rocks," 
or  the  "  Devonian,"  are  as  familiarly  applied  to  our  forma- 
tions, as  if  he  were  traveling  and  describing  them  in  England. 

By  examining  the  reports  of  the  geological  surveys  of 
this  country,  it  will  be  seen  that  many  of  our  geologists 
endeavor  to  get  our  rocks  classified  after  the  formula  of 
the  European  geologists. 

In  the  second  annual  report  of  the  Geological  Survey  of 
New  York,  we  are  presented  with  their  different  groups  of 

*  Yandell  and  Shumard. 


THE    MOUNTAIN.  79 

rocks  all  bearing  some  particular  name,  generally  of  the 
locality  where  they  are  most  largely  developed.  For  ex- 
ample, Mohawk  and  Trenton  limestone,  Salmon  River  lime- 
stone and  shales,  Rochester  shales,  etc.  etc. ;  or  they  are 
again  named  from  some  striking  character,  as  Pentamerus 
limestone,  Gypseous  shales,  Gray  Brachiopodous  sandstone, 
Olive  sandstone,  etc.  etc. 

These  are  again  classified  according  to  European  nomen- 
clature, as  different  members  of  the  Transition  series,  Cam- 
brian, or  Silurian,  etc.  etc.  Speaking  of  this  classification, 
Mr.  Lyell  says, — "  Their  grouping  of  the  subordinate  mem- 
bers of  the  Devonian  and  Silurian  systems,  has  been  based 
on  sound  principles,  on  mixed  geographical,  lithological, 
and  paleontological  considerations  ;  and  the  analogy  of  Eu- 
ropean Geology  teaches  us  that  minor  subdivisions — how- 
ever useful  and  important  within  certain  limits — are  never 
applicable  to  countries  extremely  remote  from  each  other, 
or  to  areas  of  indefinite  extent.  The  thinning  out  and  dis- 
appearance of  the  mud-stones  and  sandstones  of  the  more 
Eastern  States,  causing  limestones,  such  as  the  Helderberg 
and  Niagara,  so  widely  separated  in  New  York,  to  unite  and 
form  single  and  indivisible  masses  in  Ohio,  affords  no  argu- 
ment against  the  classification  of  the  New  York  geologists. " 

He  then  proceeds  to  enumerate  the  species  of  fossils 
which  he  had  inspected  that  were  common  to  the  rocks  of 
Ohio,  Sweden,  and  Russia. 

These  are  a  number  of  Trilobites,  as  the  Isotelus  gigas, 
Paradoxides,  Trinucleus,  Asaphus,  etc.  etc.  Also  of  shells, 
as  the  Spirifer  lynx,  regarded  by  Murchison  and  De  Yer- 
neuil  as  very  characteristic  of  the  Silurian  beds  of  Sweden 
and  Russia ;  also  others  of  the  same  order,  Leptoena  seri- 
cea,  Orthis-striatula,  Pterinea,  Cypricardia,  Orthoceras,  and 
Bellerophon  bilobatus.  He  also  enumerates  the  Crinoideas 
or  Stone  Lilies,  and  then  proceeds, — "  In  regard  to  the  pro- 
portion of  the  species  common  to  the  Silurian  beds  of  Eu- 
rope and  America,  whether  of  the  lower  or  upper  divisions, 
I  may  confidently  affirm  that  it  is  not  greater,  than  would 


80  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

be  expected  from  the  analogy  of  the  laws  governing  the 
distribution  of  living  invertebrate  animals.  A  contrary 
opinion  has  prevailed  very  widely,  it  being  rashly  assumed 
that  at  remote  epochs  the  majority  of  species  were  far 
more  cosmopolite  than  in  modern  times." 

He  further  proceeds, — "  The  recent  researches  of  Murchi- 
son  and  De  Yerneuil,  point  to  the  conclusion  that  the  fossil 
shells,  corals,  and  trilobites  of  the  Silurian  system  of  Scan- 
dinavia and  Russia  greatly  resemble  those  of  the  British 
Isles ;  yet  nearly  half  the  species  which  they  collected  there 
were  different  from  ours,  and  the  departure  from  a  common 
type  was  far  more  conspicuous  in  the  lower  Silurian  fossils 
of  Britain  and  Russia  than  in  those  of  the  upper  division. 

"When  the  same  fossils  of  Northern  Europe  were  com- 
pared by  De  Yerneuil  with  those  brought  by  me  from  Ame- 
rica, the  distinctness  was  obviously  much  greater,  although 
the  representation  of  generic  forms  in  the  organic  remains 
of  the  upper  and  lower  Silurian  strata,  was  not  clear  and 
satisfactory. " 

He  then  adduces  the  negative  evidence  which  would  tend 
to  the  conclusion  of  the  identity  of  the  ancient  fossiliferous 
rocks  of  Europe  and  America,  and  seems  to  have  no  diffi- 
culty in  demonstrating  their  parallelism. 

To  the  Onion-Peel  formula  there  have  been  some  dis- 
senters. They  object  to  the  classification  now  existing  as 
"not  possessing  scientific  elements  of  generalization  suf- 
ficiently universal."  That  the  out-cropping  edges  of 
groups  of  geological  formations,  such  as  appear  in  the 
British  Islands,  the  mere  rim  of  vast  basins  like  the  old 
continent, — that  an  insignificant  fragment,  as  England  is,  of 
so  vast  an  area  as  the  eastern  hemisphere,  should  give  a 
classification  to  the  geology  of  whole  continents,  and  the 
whole  world,  and  this  in  a  nomenclature  derived  from  a 
purely  geographic  origin,  without  any  elements  of  geologi- 
cal science  at  its  foundation,  they  have  objected  to. 

Of  course,  this  objection  can  also  be  made  to  any  attempt 
to  identify  by  name  all  the  rocks  of  this  country. 

The  vertical  section  of  Pennsvlvania  rocks  shows  the 


THE    MOUNTAIN.  81 

number  and  something  of  the  geological  and  mineralogical 
character  of  the  separate  masses  called  formations.* 

Some  American  geologists  who  object  to  old  names  and 
classes  have  attempted  a  new  nomenclature  of  the  pile. 
These  efforts  are  somewhat  fanciful  and  far-fetched,  but  at 
the  same  time  contain  suggestions  founded  in  reason  upon 
which  to  base  its  terminology,  f 

In  this  hasty  enumeration  of  the  rocks  of  the  mountain, 
it  would  not  be  desirable  to  dwell  on  points  of  purely  theo- 
retical or  scientific  import,  as  an  elaborate  treatise  in  this 
department  would  require  a  volume  or  volumes,  and  then 
leave  the  subject  unexhausted. 

The  simple  statement  of  what  is  actually  there, — the  far- 
off  hows,  whys,  and  wherefores  omitted, — is  all  that  can  be 
required  or  be  of  interest  to  the  general  observer.  Some 
account  of  the  material  fitting  in  and  forming  a  certain  part 
of  the  rocky  circle  of  the  globe, — that  segment  of  the  great 
arch  in  the  district  called  the  Appalachian  mountain-chain, 
— is  all  that  would  be  expected  or  demanded  in  a  general 
schedule  of  the  Mountain's  effects.  On  far-reaching,  world- 
wide geological  theories,  or  all-embracing  formulae  of  the 
organization  of  planets  or  primordial  patterns  of  habitable 
globes,  there  is  no  excuse  for  dwelling  in  this  recitation. 
The  philosophy  of  the  wrinkled  and  wonderfully-plicated, 
the  waved  and  folded  condition  of  the  earth's  crust  in  the 
region  under  consideration,  whether  from  the  result  of  "ac- 
tual billows  in  the  fluid  mass  upon  which  the  crust  floated, 
excited  by  the  sudden  rupturing  and  instantaneous  collaps- 
ing of  the  crust,  rent  by  the  tension  of  highly  elastic  vapors, 
etc.,"J  or  from  the  power  of  "  earthquakes  to  raise  perma- 
nent anticlinals,"  or  "from  the  contortions  produced  by  sub- 
sidence from  the  collapse  of  larger  arcs  upon  smaller  seg- 
ments of  the  sphere  of  the  earth,"  belongs  to  the  student's 
chapter  of  theories  in  geological  dynamics.  But  a  short 
and  hurried  recitation  of  the  formations  may  be  necessary 

*  See  vertical  section. 

f  For  an  attempt  of  this  kind,  see  the  Messrs.  Rogers's  Classifica- 
tion, page  101.  J  H.  D.  Rogers. 


82  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

to  a  proper  understanding  of  the  exact  geological  position 
of  the  Mountain. 

The  whole  mass  of  rocks  has  been  separated  into  nine 
groups,  by  some  observers ;  again,  from  careful  .analysis,  into 
forty-eight  formations,  none  of  which  are  coextensive  with 
the  great  palaeozoic  or  fossil-bearing  basin  in  which  they  are 
found,  and  many  of  them  of  quite  circumscribed  range. 

The  old  number  of  thirteen  formations,  of  the  geological 
reports  of  Pennsylvania,  will  suit  all  purposes  here,  the  nu- 
merical series  commencing  below  and  counting  upward. 

In  contact  with  the  lower  crystalline  rocks,  and  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  mingled  therewith,  is  the  formation  at  the  base  of 
the  great  sedimentary  pile,  designated  in  the  annual  reports 
of  the  Pennsylvania  survey  as 

No.  1. 

It  is  a  sand-rock  formation,  composed  of  fine-grained, 
white  quartzose  strata,  sometimes  of  a  gray  color,  especially 
dark,  loose-grained,  and  full  of  cherty  concretions  where  it 
passes  into  the  formation  above. 

In  other  regions  this  is  called  Potsdam  and  Calciferous 
sand-rock.  Thickness  sometimes  1000  feet. 

No.  2. 

Reposing  on  No.  1  is  a  large  mass  of  limestone,  generally 
of  a  blue  color,  with  layers  of  chert.  Some  parts  of  the 
formation  are  a  light  blue,  or  dove-color,  even  of  a  fawn 
tint,  containing  a  quantity  of  magnesia.  Where  it  passes 
into  the  formation  above  the  layers  are  argillaceous  and 
nearly  black.  When  it  mingles  with  the  formation  below  it 
presents  siliceous  limestones  and  calcareous  sandstones.  The 
group  is  replete  with  fossil  corals,  encrinites,  trilobites,  nu- 
merous bivalves,  and  orthocerata,  etc.,  of  the  Silurian  rocks 
of  England.  This  is  the  Trenton  limestone  of  some  geolo- 
gists, and  forms  the  long,  boat-shaped,  limestone  valleys  of 
Pennsylvania,  called  also  "coves."  The  largest  caves  or 
caverns  of  the  State  are  in  this  formation. 


THE    MOUNTAIN.  83 


FORMATION  3. 

Upon  2  reposes  a  slate  and  shale  formation.  It  is  usually 
black,  dark  blue,  sometimes  gray,  olive,  and  drab-colored. 
It  is  a  valuable  mass,  in  some  places  giving  roofing-slate. 
It  also  contains  sand  layers,  gray  and  white,  occasionally 
conglomeritic. 

It  is  one  of  the  mud-stones  of  the  East,  spoken  of  by  Mr. 
Lyell.  It  gradually  mingles  with  the  formation  above  and 
below,  in  layers  of  calcareous  slate  and  argillaceous  sand- 
stone. It  is  filled  with  fossils  in  some  parts  of  the  mass. 
Thickness  from  200  to  6000  feet. 

FORMATION  4. 

Succeeding  the  last  formation  is  a  sandstone  group.  It  is 
made  up  of  a  series  of  layers,  white  and  gray,  sometimes 
fine-grained,  compact;  again  coarse  and  conglomeritic. 
Many  of  its  layers  are  full  of  fossil  marine  plants  called 
"  Fucoides."  It  is  from  400  to  2000  feet  thick. 

This  is  the  formation  which  gives  the  belt  of  sharp,  sym- 
metrical Appalachian  mountains  east  of  the  Alleghany  range 
and  which  are  parallel  with  it.  They  run  like  majestic  waves 
from  northeast  to  southwest  in  lines  as  straight  for  miles, 
often,  as  they  could  be  run  by  the  compass.  Where  these 
mountains  are  entire  anticlinal  axes,  they  present  broad, 
gentle  slopes ;  but  where  the  axes  are  split  or  cracked  open, 
and  the  two  sides  separate  to  surround  valleys  of  the  sub- 
jacent formations,  as  around  the  large  limestone  valleys  of 
Formation  2,  the  mountains  are  narrow  and  abrupt,  with 
steep  and  precipitous  escarpments,  covered  with  stone  slides, 
and  spaces  of  loose,  massive  fragments,  in  rugged  confusion, 
with  no  vegetation  except  the  lichen  and  moss. 

The  material  of  this  formation  being  hard  and  indestruc- 
tible, the  mountains  which  it  always  forms  run  like  immense 
dikes  through  the  country,  cut  by  numerous  water-gaps, 
through  which  the  streams  and  roads  of  the  region  pass 
from  valley  to  valley. 


84  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

These  mountains  are  often  but  a  few  yards  wide  at  their 
summits,  and  resemble  huge  walls  in  ruin ;  their  sides  the 
talus  of  long  ages  of  gnawing  by  the  teeth  of  time ;  but 
their  majestic  cliffs,  still  imperial,  proud,  and  defiant,  offering 
battle,  as  if  forever,  to  the  elements  that  seek  to  destroy 
them.  Where  the  rocks  in  them  have  a  gentle  inclination 
they  are  high,  attaining  the  elevation  of  1400  to  1600  feet 
above  the  waters  in  the  gaps.  Where  the  rocks  are  in  a 
vertical  position,  the  mountains  are  low.  The  cause  of 
this  is  obvious ;  the  gently-inclined  strata  resisting  like  the 
slope  of  a  dam,  while  the  vertical  rocks  had  to  contend 
against  the  direct  action  of  the  denuding  currents  by  co- 
hesion alone,  the  abrading  force  operating  at  right-angles 
to  the  resisting  surfaces. 

Above,  this  formation  passes  by  degrees  into  the  super- 
incumbent formation,  showing,  as  usual,  a  mingling  of  the 
characters  of  both. 

The  philosophy  of  the  structure  of  valleys  of  Formation 
2  surrounded  by  this  rock,  will  be  understood  by  observing 
its  relation  to  that  Formation,  and  applying  the  common 
laws  of  natural  philosophy. 

FORMATION  5 

Is  the  next  in  the  ascending  order. 

It  is  composed  of  a  series  of  variegated  slates,  shales,  and 
sandstones  of  all  colors,  generally  light,  as  olive,  yellow, 
gray,  and  red  In  the  lower  part  of  the  formation  the  sili- 
ceous element  of  the  subjacent  group  mingles,  presenting 
sand  strata,  which  contain  fossils,  animal  and  vegetable,  or 
trilobites  and  fucoides. 

This  Formation  is  always  found  on  the  flanks  of  moun- 
tains of  Formation  4;  sometimes  making  gradual  slopes 
high  up  the  mountains;  and  again,  partially  denuded,  it 
gives  more  precipitous  declivities,  and  is  covered  by  frag- 
ments of  the  sandstone  of  Formation  4. 

This  is  the  formation  which  contains  the  celebrated  fossil- 
iferous  iron  ore,  upon  which  so  many  furnaces  of  the  State 


THE    MOUNTAIN.  85 

are  built.  In  the  upper  part  of  the  group  there  is  a  mass 
of  red  shale  and  a  series  of  yellow,  bluish,  olive,  and  choco- 
late slates  with  limy  layers,  which  is  the  passage  of  this 
mass  into  the  next  Formation  above,  a  limestone. 

These  layers  are  full  of  fossil  shells  and  encrinites,  and  it 
is  one  of  these  bands  which  has  been  altered  into  the  prin- 
cipal stratum  of  ore,  of  which,  however,  there  are  several. 
In  some  places  the  Formation  is  2000  feet  thick ;  at  the 
bases  of  the  mountains  of  Formation  4,  it  is  from  600  to 
900  feet  thick. 

The  Formation  is  especially  interesting  to  the  geologist, 
on  account  of  the  great  abundance  of  fossils  which  it  con- 
tains. It  is  nearly  on  the  same  horizon  as  the  Niagara 
limestone  of  the  New  York  survey. 

FORMATION  6. 

This  is  a  limestone  group,  with  some  intermingling  of 
other  elements.  It  contains  argillaceous,  magnesian,  and 
siliceous  layers ;  the  former,  where  it  passes  into  the  rocks 
below,  and  the  latter,  where  it  mingles  with  the  formation 
above,  or  No.  1,  a  sand  group.  It  is  full  of  fossils,  pre- 
senting a  great  variety  of  corals,  encrinites,  and  shells. 
Many  of  the  strata  appear  to  be  almost  entirely  composed 
of  organic  remains.  This  is  the  equivalent  of  the  cliff  lime- 
stone of  the  Western  geologists.  It  ranges  through  all  the 
valleys  of  denudation,  with 

FORMATION  T 

Which  is  a  sandstone  mass,  composed  of  coarse-grained, 
loosely-accreted,  yellow  and  white  sand  layers.  It  is  full  of 
fine  casts  of  shells,  and  also  a  variety  of  corals,  among  which 
are  beautiful  stone  lilies.  Where  this  Formation  is  exposed 
to  gradual  erosion  and  denudation,  it  washes  away  irregu- 
larly, leaving  columns  of  the  harder  part  of  the  rock  stand- 
ing like  strange  and  grotesque  productions  of  art,  called 
"Pulpit  Rocks,"  etc. 


86  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

In  some  places  it  has  attained  the  thickness  of  600  feet, 
but  in  other  places  it  is  not  more  than  50  feet  thick. 

FORMATION  8 

Is  a  large  mass  of  rocks,  called  the  "  olive  slate  group,  or 
the  Hamilton,  Portage,  and  Chemung  groups"  of  the  New 
York  reports.  It  is  composed  of  a  series  of  dark-gray  and 
olive  slates  and  sandstones,  sometimes  yellow,  greenish,  and 
brown.  The  sandstones  are  argillaceous  and  fine-grained, 
showing  extensive  and  peculiar  lines  of  cleavage. 

At  the  base  of  the  mass  it  abounds  in  fossils  ;  but  fossils 
are  found  through  the  whole  formation,  some  localities 
giving  several  species  of  trilobites.  There  are  also  in  it 
.  shells  and  corals  in  abundance.  It  is  from  5000  to  8000  feet 
thick,  and,  wherever  distributed,  presents  a  characteristic 
style  of  topography,  with  great  sameness  of  soil,  quality  of 
surface,  etc.  etc. 

FORMATION  9 

Reposes  upon  the  last  group  described,  and  is  a  large 
mass  of  rocks  composed  of  red  slates  and  shales,  red,  gray, 
and  brown  argillaceous  sandstones  and  slates.  This  is  the 
group  which  forms  the  southeastern  slopes  of  the  Alleghany 
Mountain,  and  is  extensively  exposed  in  all  the  gaps  or 
cuts  of  the  mountain. 

It  also  forms  the  slopes  of  the  mountains  in  the  anthra- 
cite regions.  Some  of  the  northern  counties  have  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  their  surfaces  formed  of  this  and  asso- 
ciated masses,  as  Pike,  Wayne,  and  Monroe  counties.  It 
contains  fossil  shells,  and  beautiful  vegetable  fucoidal  forms 
in  abundance,  as  cock's-comb  fucus,  etc. 

It  is  frequently  6000  feet  thick,  and  sometimes  more ;  and 
is  the  Catskill  group  of  the  New  York  reports.  The  whole 
is  a  mass  of  sand  and  mud  rocks,  a  bright-red  being  the 
predominating  color.  It  also  contains  an  iron  ore  of 
value,  and  some  copper. 


THE   MOUNTAIN.  87 


FORMATION  10 

Is  a  mass  of  gray,  brownish,  coarse,  and  fine-grained 
sandstones,  with  sometimes  coarse,  siliceous  conglomerates. 
It  also  contains  blackish,  carbonaceous  slates  and  coal  shales, 
sometimes  with  one  or  two  small  coal-seams.  It  is  a  hard, 
indestructible  group,  and  consequently  forms  mountains. 
It  is  the  rock  which  makes  up  and  caps  the  first  range  of 
Alleghany  spurs.  It  also  forms  many  other  mountains,  as 
Shickshinny,  Nescopeck,  Peter's,  Berry's,  and  Mahantongo 
mountains  in  Pennsylvania.  It  contains  fossils,  both  ani- 
mal and  vegetable.  In  some  localities  the  formation  is  2000 
feet  thick;  but  generally,  throughout  Pennsylvania,  it  is 
not  more  than  300  feet  thick. 

FORMATION  11. 

On  No.  10  there  is  a  mass  of  red  shale  and  sandstone, 
also  gray  sandstone,  sometimes  compact,  but  generally  soft 
and  argillaceous;  containing  also  some  lime  layers,  with 
fossils,  and  a  peculiar  calcareous  sand  mass,  which,  from  its 
style  of  weathering,  is  easily  identified,  and  is  always  a  key 
for  fixing  the  position  of  masses  above  and  below.  Its 
weathered  surfaces  have  a  remarkable  oblique-lined  appear- 
ance, and  the  mass  is  full  of  water-worn  cavities,  enlarging, 
in  some  places,  into  considerable  caverns.  The  Formation 
generally  produces  slight  depressions  behind  the  first  peaks 
or  butresses  of  the  mountains  of  Formation  10,  its  soft  shales 
being  easily  abraded  and  destroyed. 

It  is  sometimes,  in  the  anthracite  region,  2900  feet  thick, 
but  in  the  bituminous  measures  it  is  not  more  than  250  or 
300  feet  thick.  It  contains  an  iron  ore  of  value  in  some 
places.  It  also  contains,  in  certain  parts  of  the  bituminous 
coal-region,  a  thin  seam  or  two  of  coal,  and  in  the  south, 
one  or  two  large  workable  beds  of  coal,  although  its  place 
is  under  the  conglomerate,  the  proper  floor  of  the  coal. 


88  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

FORMATION  12. 

On  the  red  shales  of  No.  11  repose  the  coarse  sandstones 
and  quartzose  conglomerates,  called  generally,  "the  con- 
glomerate," as  it  is  considered  the  floor  of  the  coal  measures 
proper.  In  the  anthracite  region  it  attains  the  thickness  of 
1400  feet,  but  in  the  bituminous  region  or  Alleghany  Moun- 
tain, it  is  generally  not  more  than  from  100  to  250  feet 
thick ;  whilst  occasionally,  a  few  coarse-grained,  massive 
strata,  are  all  that  stand  as  its  representative.  There  are 
occasionally  thin  layers  of  dark  carbonaceous  slate  and 
shale  in  this  formation,  the  representatives  of  imperfect  coal- 
seams,  the  formation  being  the  inauguration  of  that  splen- 
did group  of  which  it  forms  the  base. 

FORMATION  13 

Is  the  true  carboniferous  division  of  the  great  sedimentary 
pile.  Upon  the  conglomerate  rests  the  series  of  sandstones 
of  all  colors,  generally  gray  and  white,  slates  of  all  colors, 
and  shales  of  all  colors,  limestones,  and  coal-seams,  called 
the  coal  series  or  "  carboniferous  group."  In  the  anthra- 
cite region,  as  estimated  on  the  vertical  section,  it  is  near 
6000  feet  thick.  In  the  bituminous  coal  measures,  the  whole 
group  gives  a  thickness  of  some  3000  or  3500  feet  of  sand- 
stones, shales  and  slates,  limestones,  iron  ores,  with  beds  of 
coal  through  the  whole  group.  In  the  whole  series  there 
are  about  twenty  coal-seams,  many  of  which  are  workable  ; 
together  with  a  number  of  other  insignificant  layers,  the 
aggregate  of  coal  being  about  55  feet  in  all. 

The  true  significance  of  this  division  of  the  series  of 
rocks,  the  carboniferous  group,  in  the  great  chapter  of  uses 
of  the  world  and  its  connection  with  the  progress  and  well- 
being  of  humanity,  it  is  impossible  to  estimate. 

The  patient  toil  of  centuries  has  here  accumulated 
reservoirs  of  power  that  seem  exhaustless,  and  the  genius 
of  the  hour  having  subdued  the  fire-king,  having  chained, 
tamed,  and  harnessed  the  most  terrible  of  the  brute  forces 


THE    MOUNTAIN.  89 

of  the  earth  to  do  his  work,  finds  food  and  sustenance  for 
the  conquered  dragon,  for  thousands  of  years. 

The  scientific  elaboration  into  well-fixed  formulae  of  this 
one  member  of  the  great  geological  series,  was  well  worth 
the  effort  and  worthy  of  the  ambition  of  a  true  and  gifted 
student  and  lover  of  science,  whose  unique  and  beautiful 
Monograph  on  coal  leaves  little  to  be  said  for  the  present 
on  that  subject.* 

A  short  and  hurried  enumeration  has  been  made  of  the 
thirteen  separate  formations  or  geological  groups  in  the 
ascending  series,  its  base  boiled,  burned,  and  crystallized  by 
the  long-exhausted  primative  central  fires  of  the  planet, 
and  its  summit  regally  crowded  by  a  diadem  of  slumbering 
flames  in  endless  depositories  of  fuel,  or  world-fires,  heat 
and  light  for  a  globe,  still  untouched  and  inexhaustible  in  a 
buried  flora,  whose  gorgeous  forms  scientifically  restored, 
would  be  a  "  midsummer  night's  dream"  of  wonders.  Nep- 
tune and  Pluto  are  no  longer  fables ;  they  have  become 
stereotyped  symbols  in  the  language  of  science,  recording 
the  past  achievements  of  time.  The  imagination  ("reason 
using  the  external  world")  striding  forward  over  hundreds  of 
years,  her  delicate  instinct  prophesying  the  inevitable,  has  at 
last  hailed  and  united  with  the  understanding  in  her  conquest 
of  the  actual,  in  the  stern  demonstrations  of  the  intellect. 

A  glimpse  at  this  majestic  pile,  whose  whole  thickness 
aggregated  some  six  or  seven  miles  of  solid  rocks,  is  all  that 
has  been  or  could  be  attempted  here.  But  it  is  that  por- 
tion of  the  group  forming  the  Alleghany  Mountain,  in  its 
transit  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  that  is  the  special  sub- 
ject of  consideration  in  this  place. 

The  Alleghany  Mountain  crosses  the  State  from  northeast 
to  southwest,  dividing  it  into  two  approximately  equal  dis- 
tricts. The  region  to  the  southeast  of  the  line  of  eleva- 
tions called  the  Alleghany, — with  the  exception  of  a  small 

*  Manual  of  Coal  and  its  Topography,  by  J.  P.  Lesley,  Topogra- 
phical Geologist.  Published  by  J.  B.  Lippincott  &  Co. 

.     8* 


90  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

portion  of  the  southeastern  corner  of  the  State,  perhaps  one- 
seventh  of  the  entire  surface  of  the  State,  and  which  is  consti- 
tuted of  the  highly-crystallized  metamorphic  hypozoic  rocks, 
— is  made  of  the  middle  and  lower  part  of  this  vast  pile  of 
unaltered  sedimentary  strata  which  forms  the  elevated  and 
wrinkled  plateau  of  the  eastern  side  of  the  continent.  The 
manner  in  which  the  rocks  are  bent  and  contorted,  forming 
this  rugged  but  highly-interesting  and  wonderful  mountain 
region  of  the  middle  and  southeastern  counties,  is  a  subject 
of  the  highest  scientific  attraction  and  exhaustless  intel- 
lectual speculation.  It  has  already  been  adverted  to  a 
number  of  times,  and  will  be  readily  understood  by  reference 
to  the  sections ;  especially  the  transverse  section  showing 
the  style  of  plication  of  the  rocks.  In  some  parts  of  this 
region  the  whole  group  of  rocks  from  the  crystalline  to  the 
coal  measures  inclusive,  is  presented  for  inspection.  The 
series  already  described  as  constituted  of  thirteen  easily- 
separable  groups  of  strata,  are  recognizable  and  easily  iden- 
tified over  vast  extents  of  geographic  distribution  by  a 
wonderful  homogeneity  of  mineralogical,  geological,  and  pa- 
laozoic  or  fossilliferous  characters.  In  the  region  west  and 
northwest  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  we  are  presented 
with  but  few  of  the  members  of  this  group  of  formations, 
the  surface  of  the  state  being  here  made  of  the  carbonifer- 
ous division  and  two  or  three  of  the  underlying  formations, 
the  strata  being  in  a  different  geological  position  from  the 
southeastern  division  of  the  State,  and  consequently,  it 
shows  a  different  topography,  and  one  which  forms  a  strik- 
ing contrast  with  that  portion  of  the  State.  This  difference 
would  strike  the  most  superficial  observer.  The  rolling  sur- 
face of  the  northwestern  region  has  through  its  extent 
only  these  uppermost  formations  stretching  over  the  whole 
region,  that  tumultuous  tossing  of  the  strata  with  regular 
crest  lines  which  characterizes  the  southeastern  range  of 
sharp  mountains,  and  those  deep-washed  regular  parallel 
valleys,  here  cease,  the  waves  of  that  magnificent  system  of 
the  regular  Appalachian  mountains  and  valleys  gradually 


THE    MOUNTAIN.  91 

subsiding.  The  axes  or  arcs  of  the  waves  or  wrinkles  of  the 
rocks  flatten  out,  and  the  strata  show  a  tendency  to  assume 
a  horizontal  position,  approaching  the  quiet  basin  of  the 
centre  of  the  continent.  These  gentler  undulations  retain 
the  general  features  of  the  abrupt  eastern  axes,  that  is, 
they  run  in  lines  northeast  and  southwest,  and  preserve 
their  usual  parallelism,  and  the  relationship  of  the  inclina- 
tion of  strata  on  the  different  sides  of  the  axes.  The  two 
great  natural  agents  which  give  external  geology  and  geo- 
graphy to  a  country, — namely,  the  deep  subterranean  or  up- 
heaving, and  the  superficial  disintegrating  and  abrading 
forces,  have  very  clearly  acted  with  much  less  intensity  in 
this  region.  The  dips  of  the  strata  do  not  change  often, 
and  the  inclination  of  the  rocks  is  never  great,  whilst  the 
fracturing  and  grinding  of  the  strata  and  the  sweeping 
force  of  currents  appear  to  have  acted  with  much  less 
violence,  and  consequently,  the  destruction  of  the  valuable 
contents  of  this  region  has  been  prevented,  over  any  con- 
siderable extent,  It  is  thus  that  the  coal  and  iron  of  this 
highly-gifted  portion  of  the  earth  has  been  saved  from  de- 
struction. Instead  of  wide-sweeping  valleys  of  denudation, 
such  as  we  are  presented  with  in  the  southeastern  part  of 
the  State,  destroying  and  carrying  to  the  rebuilding  of  new 
continents  vast  quantities  of  mineral  matter,  we  have  small 
narrow  valleys  and  ravines,  natural  excavations  as  it  were, 
designed  to  bring  into  man's  power  the  immeasurable  wealth 
of  the  rocks  below.  And  here,  in  the  small,  as  in  the  largest 
thing  that  is,  the  wisdom  and  perfection  of  the  Universe  is 
revealed.  By  this  apparently  accidental  distribution  of  the* 
surface  into  hill  and  hollow  there  is  the  most  perfect  access 
to  the  mineral  contents  of  the  region  ;  and  a  large  and  com- 
prehensive view  of  the  geological  structure  of  the  north- 
western half  of  the  State  presents  an  extensive  basin,  or 
rather,  the  termination  of  an  immense  basin  which  extends 
southwestwardly  from  the  northern  border  of  Pennsylvania, 
almost  to  the  centre  of  Alabama.  This  coal  field,  re- 
markable for  its  vast  extent,  continues  uninterruptedly  from 


92  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

northeast  to  southwest,  a  distance  of  some  seven  hundred 
and  forty  miles,  presenting  a  width  of  sometimes  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty  miles.  One  estimate  of  its  superficial  area 
gives  sixty-three  thousand  square  miles.  Its  original  limits, 
as  suggested  by  geologists,  must  have  measured,  before  they 
were  reduced  by  denudation,  nine  hundred  miles  in  length, 
and  two  hundred  miles  in  breadth. 

In  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  from  its  southern  line  in 
Somerset  county,  to  the  north  branch  of  the  Susquehanna 
River  in  Luzerne  county,  the  Alleghany  Mountain  forms 
the  eastern  margin  of  this  basin.  Between  that  limit  and 
the  State  of  New  York  on  the  north,  and  Lake  Erie  on  the 
northwest,  all  the  rocks  belong  to  three  or  four  formations, 
as  already  described,  including  the  carboniferous  group. 
The  two  large  formations  that  underlie  the  silicious  masses 
under  the  coal  series,  the  olive  slate  group,  and  the  red  sand- 
stone and  slate  group,  run  along  with  and  form  the  south- 
eastern escarpment  of  the  Alleghany  Mountain  and  the 
range  of  hills  at  its  base,  between  the  points  designated, 
and  sweep  in  a  wide  curve  around  the  northeastern  termi- 
nations of  the  upper  rocks  in  Susquehanna  and  Bradford 
counties,  and  are  traceable,  although  thinning  down,  west- 
ward, in  a  long  belt  nearly  parallel  with  the  north  line  of  the 
State  from  Towanda  into  the  State  of  Ohio.  Immediately 
within  the  belt  thus  traced,  there  is  found  a  bold  escarpment, 
formed  of  hard  sandstones,  conglomerates,  and  silicious 
slates,  directly  underlying  and  forming  part  of  the  carbon- 
iferous formation,  which  is  the  actual  northeastern  margin 
$f  the  great  bituminous  coal  basin.  The  anthracite  and 
semi-bituminous  coals  are  found  in  the  more  disturbed  and 
broken  belt  of  the  Appalachian  range,  east  of  the  basin  thus 
designated,  but  occupying  the  same  geological  position ;  in 
other  words,  being  true  geological  equivalents.  The  Alle- 
ghany Mountain,  as  an  individual  chain,  is  the  rim,  margin, 
or  eastern  escarpment  of  the  crops  of  the  sands,  conglome- 
rates, and  slates  of  this  vast  basin,  presenting  many  flexures, 
but  all  with  general  southwest  line  of  trend.  The  summits 


THE    MOUNTAIN.  93 

of  its  highest  knobs,  as  already  remarked,  are  formed  of 
these  rocks,  which  are  all  here  found  dipping  in  one  general 
direction,  exhibiting  a  vast  monoclinal  axis  of  gentle  inclina- 
tions. The  northern  and  western  range  of  these  silicious 
masses  give  a  more  broken,  undulating,  and  irregular  chain 
of  heights,  extending  west  from  Towanda  by  Blossburg,  in 
Tioga  county,  the  northeastern  limit  of  the  bituminous  coal, 
and  north  of  Smithport,  in  McKean  county,  and  Warren, 
in  Warren  county,  from  which  it  is  slightly  deflected,  with 
greatly  reduced  altitude,  somewhat  to  the  south,  in  the  re- 
gion of  Meadville,  in  Crawford  county,  and  crossing  into 
Ohio  through  the  county  of  Trumbull.  Along  the  northern 
side  of  this  basin  all  the  formations,  from  the  olive  slate  to 
the  coal  measures  inclusive,  have  gentle  southern  dips,  and 
the  passage  into  the  large  basin  is  successively  over  higher 
and  higher  strata  from  the  New  York  line,  where  the  slates, 
shales,  and  argillaceous  sandstones  of  the  olive  (Formation 
8)  slate  formation  are  the  predominating  rocks.  In  Craw- 
ford and  Mercer  counties,  where  the  lower  strata  crop  out 
northwest  of  the  coal,  the  general  dip  is  southeast ;  while 
on  the  southeastern  margin,  or  in  the  range  of  the  Alleghany, 
the  prevailing  inclination  is  north  of  west ;  thus  inward  all 
round  toward  the  centre  of  the  great  trough  containing  the 
coal.  While  this  is  true  with  regard  to  the  edge  of  the 
large  basin,  within  this  boundary  there  are  a  number  of 
arches  or  anticlinal  axes,  some  of  which  are  of  great  length 
and  considerable  elevation,  others  low,  with  slight  inclina- 
tions, giving  to  the  entire  mass  of  the  basin  a  series  of  more 
or  less  gentle  undulations.  Many  of  these  lines  of  elevation 
lift  the  formations  below  the  coal  to  the  surface,  sometimes 
causing  the  latter  to  be  washed  away  over  considerable  ex- 
tents of  country,  thus  dividing  the  region  of  the  large  basin 
into  a  number  of  subordinate  coal  basins.  These  anticlinal 
lines  sometimes  rise  into  the  height  of  mountainous  ridges, 
called  by  different  names,  as  Elk  Mountain,  Chestnut  Ridge, 
Laurel  Hill,  Negro  Mountain,  etc.  The  whole  number  of 
these  anticlinal  axes,  or  western  parallel  Appalachian  ranges, 


94  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

which  are  large  enough  to  impress  any  striking  features  on 
the  topography  of  this  region,  or  to  have  caused  the  coal  to 
be  removed  from  their  lines  of  elevation,  are  not  generally 
of  any  considerable  size,  further  than  forty  miles  into  the 
basin  across  the  strata. 

Between  these  higher  ranges  of  ridges  are  the  wide  and 
irregular  valleys,  already  described  in  the  topographical  part 
of  this  chapter,  scarcely  conveying  the  idea  or  impression  of 
valleys,  from  their  surfaces  being  perpetually  broken  up  by 
hills  of  greater  or  less  magnitude.  Through  these  basins  the 
crops  of  the  coal-seams  are  found  on  the  hill-sides  and  in 
the  ravines,  extending  from  hill  to  hill,  and  rising  gradually 
toward  the  anticlinal  axes,  or  plunging  below  the  water- 
courses and  levels  of  denudation,  toward  the  invisible  ranges 
of  the  synclinal  troughs. 

The  smaller  valleys,  or  minor  depressions,  are  generally 
the  courses  of  the  streams  which  drain  this  district,  and  are 
extremely  irregular,  presenting  every  imaginable  variety  of 
configuration  of  surface. 

This  fact  alone  gives  variety  unequaled,  and  an  element 
of  surprise  and  enchantment  to  the  landscapes  of  this  inte- 
resting region. 

The  coal  series,  designated  and  characterized  as  a  separate 
formation,  is  made  up,  as  has  been  already  said,  of  a  variety 
of  sandstones,  slates,  and  shales,  with  limestone  and  coal- 
seams,  forming,  as  will  be  easily  understood  by  reference  to 
the  vertical  section,  the  upper  part  of  that  majestic  pile  of 
sedimentary  rocks  constituting  almost  the  entire  geological 
structure  of  Pennsylvania,  as  well  as  a  considerable  portion 
of  the  Atlantic  and  Middle  United  States. 

In  Pennsylvania  the  region  made  of  these  coal  rocks  pre- 
sents throughout  the  broken  and  hilly  surface  already  de- 
scribed; the  higher  lines,  or  chains  of  hills,  showing  the 
position  of  the  geological  masses  below,  and  revealing  the 
ranges  of  fracture,  and  of  elevation,  and  depression;  the 
system  of  drainage  also  showing  the  lines  of  washing,  to- 
ward the  larger  valleys  of  denudation,  in  which  the  creeks 


THE    MOUNTAIN.  95 

and  rivers  continue  to  flow.  Some  of  these  streams  cleave 
into  the  mountain  ranges  so  deeply  as  to  bring  forth 
geological  formations  below  the  coal  series.  This  is  ap- 
parent in  the  gaps  of  the  Susquehanna  and  its  tributary 
streams  through  the  Alleghany  Mountains;  also  in  the 
gaps  of  the  Conemaugh,  Youghiogheny,  and  other  streams, 
through  the  collateral  ranges  of  Laurel  Hill  and  Chestnut 
Ridge.  Stretching  westward  from  the  Alleghany,  the  re- 
gion between  it  and  its  parallel  ridges  presents  a  con- 
tinued series  of  undulating  surfaces,  or  labyrinth  of  hills,  with 
certain  features  of  sameness,  yet  with  a  forever-renewed 
variety  of  landscape,  surprising  in  its  diversity,  and  exceed- 
ingly beautiful.  The  traveler,  who  has  passed  through  this 
country,  will  not  forget  the  continually-recurring  delight 
with  which  there  arose  before  him  a  perfectly  new  and 
heretofore  unseen  combination  of  hill  and  valley;  each 
variety  of  soil  exhibiting  its  characteristic  clothing  or  vege- 
table dress,  thus  giving  rise  to  an  endless  succession  of  the 
most  exquisite  and  diversified  pictures  of  nature.  This  is 
the  general  character  of  the  Alleghany  with  the  region  west 
of  it. 

It  is  the  Alleghany  Mountain  itself,  however,  which  pre- 
sents claims  of  the  greatest  interest  in  the  world  of  uses  and 
beauties  for  man.  The  great  sweep  of  its  eastern  range  of 
knobs,  with  steep  southeastern  declivities,  overlooks,  like  a 
range  of  observatories,  the  region  stretching  for  miles  in 
front  toward  the  sea;  the  picturesque  gorges  and  ravines 
cut  abruptly  into  the  mass  forming  the  mountain,  are 
the  courses  of  fresh,  rushing  mountain  streams,  with  their 
craggy  sides  covered  by  forests  of  evergreen  pines  and 
laurels ;  while  westward  it  gradually  mingles  with  an  in- 
terminable extent  of  rolling  hills.  It  is  this  wild  and  ma- 
jestic character  that  attracts  and  holds  spell-bound  with 
visions  of  beauty  the  lovers  of  nature,  and  makes  the  moun- 
tain and  its  groups  of  landscapes  of  every  style  of  grandeur 
and  beauty  the  glory  of  the  world,  a  region  of  never-failing 
attraction  and  delight. 


96  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

Standing  on  its  highest  knobs,  in  the  central  part  of  Penn- 
sylvania, the  beholder  is  presented  with  the  most  ex- 
quisite and  sublime  panoramas  of  the  earth.  North  and 
south,  the  range  of  spurs  stretches  off  into  the  .distance,  the 
parallel  chains  east  and  west  sweeping  in  majestic  curves  to 
unite  apparently  in  vast  circular  mountains. 

To  the  west,  the  table-land  valleys  extend  a  rolling  sur- 
face between  the  Alleghany  and  parallel  ridges ;  and  suc- 
ceeding this  are  the  western  mountains,  with  slightly  undu- 
lating crests  rising  in  succession  until  lost  in  the  distance. 

Looking  east  toward  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  the  vision  is 
one  for  the  expression  of  whose  beauty  there  is,  as  yet,  no 
voice  or  word. 

Immediately  below  reposes  the  range  of  beautiful  valleys 
at  the  southeastern  base  of  the  Alleghanies,  their  northwestern 
margins  sloping  up  to  the  mountain  in  a  range  of  round, 
soft,  billowy  hills, — as  it  were,  the  gentle  heavings  of  a  sum- 
mer sea,  breaking  against  the  shore  upon  whose  rocky 
heights  the  beholder  stands.  Rising  from  the  southeast 
side  of  these  valleys  is  the  first  chain  of  sharp,  regular,  Ap- 
palachian mountains,  formed  by  the  hard  rocks  in  the  lower 
part  of  the  series.  Succeeding  this  is  another  of  the  same 
kind  of  mountains,  and  beyond  this  others  still  of  the  same 
order,  the  spaces  between  the  lines  which  are  made  of  their 
crests  becoming  less  and  less,  as  the  obliquity  of  the  lines 
becomes  greater  and  greater. 

It  is  also  beautiful  to  perceive  that,  in  the  space  between 
each  of  these  lines  which  represents  the  distance  between 
the  mountain  summits,  the  tint,  from  the  increased  dis- 
tance, becomes  deeper  and  deeper,  until  lost  in  the  clear 
blue  of  ether.  As  the  eye  follows  the  azure  steps  of  this 
kingly  portal  to  the  skies,  line  rising  above  line,  it  can 
scarcely  be  realized  that,  within  each  of  these  tints  of  deeper 
blue,  there  reposes  a  range  of  the  richest  and  loveliest  lime- 
stone valleys  of  Pennsylvania.  Often,  with  bars  of  clouds 
reposing  on  the  horizon,  it  is  impossible  for  the  eye  to  dis- 


THE    MOUNTAIN.  97 

tinguish  the  distant  lines,  or  fix  where  the  earth  ceases  and 
the  heavens  commence. 

The  poet  and  painter  are  here  presented  with  a  boundless 
field,  as  the  element  of  beauty  seems  alone  to  have  been  re- 
cognized and  consulted  in  its  creation.  Let  the  artist  then 
bathe  his  soul  forever  in  this  river  of  enchantments  and 
play  like  an  exstatic  child  in  this  sea  of  heavenly  forms. 
Descending  from  this  ethereal  element, — the  "dread  power" 
of  beauty, — the  economist  or  utilitarian  finds  immeasurable 
reservoirs  of  wealth  and  power  in  mineral  resources ;  whilst 
the  savan  finds  also  a  field  of  endless  study  and  contempla- 
tion, exhaustless  depositories  of  organic  forms,  rocks  teem- 
ing with  fossils,  leaves  of  the  miraculous  volume  filled  with 
the  eventful  history  of  a  planet  struggling  into  being,  into 
peace,  order,  beauty,  and  light,  from  war,  chaos,  brutality, 
and  darkness. 

The  elaborate  scientific  details  of  the  history  of  the  geo- 
logical genesis  and  exodus  of  the  mountain  is  not  the 
chapter  proposed  to  be  indited  here.  To  the  sphere  of  the 
special  geologist,  whose  end  is  the  stern  and  severe  induc- 
tions of  science  alone,  this  belongs,  a  world  of  rich  and 
inspiring  visions,  a  universe  of  grand  and  gorgeous  sug- 
gestions, eloquent  with  the  music  of  "  starry  spaces  and  long 
thousands  of  years."  The  mountain  dissolved,  like  Cleopa- 
tra's pearl,  would  be  a  drink  for  a  whole  sanhedrim  of  geo- 
logical gods.  It  would  seem,  in  one  aspect,  a  very  small 
page  of  a  very  vast  volume,  being  an  insignificant  fragment 
or  protuberance  on  a  globe  twenty-five  thousand  miles  in 
circumference  ;  yet  to  comprehend  it  with  clear  intelligence, 
to  illuminate  it  with  perfect  scientific  precision,  would  be  to 
read  all  the  secrets  of  Nature,  make  vocal  the  silent  and  in- 
finite, give  the  key  to  open  the  mysteries  of  eternity,  and 
explain  the  riddle  of  the  Universe  to  the  soul.  Its  true 
story  would  be  the  philosophy  of  creation,  its  true  song  the 
beatitude  of  humanity. 

A  part  is  related  to  the  whole,  and  to  apprehend  it  fully, 
would  be  to  apprehend  the  whole  ;  for  "  every  natural  part 

i) 


98  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

is  an  emanation,  and  that  from  which  it  emanates  is  also 
an  emanation,"  the  world  of  effects  reflecting  the  world  of 
causes, — as  "by  the  sea,  reflected  is  the  sun,"  too  glorious 
to  be  gazed  at, — in  their  own  sphere  of,  transcendent 
brightness. 

There  is  clear  and  perfect  wisdom  in  the  seeming  chaos  ; 
and  although  multiform  and  diverse,  confused  and  irregular 
to  the  uninitiated  the  world  and  its  fragments  appear,  still 
there  is  a  system  in  them,  a  meaning  that  can  be  read ;  the 
labyrinth  has  a  clue  and  Daedalus  has  told  the  secret.  "  The 
wondrous  maze  is  not  without  a  plan."  There  is  an  organi- 
zation, an  intelligible  order  in  the  arrangement  of  the  mate- 
rials of  the  earth  and  its  mountains,  and  this  order  is  never 
violated ;  for,  being  the  first  law  of  Heaven,  it  is  the  last  of 
Earth. 

It  would  then  be  a  pleasing,  an  enchanting  task  to  follow 
the  mountain  in  its  progress  through  the  dreams  of  fabulous 
geology,  when  it  was  a  mystery  and  miracle,  why  "  shells 
were  found  on  mountain-tops,  but  not  surprising  why  shells 
were  found  at  all;"  when  it  was  the  ceaseless  wonder  how 
those  "  forms,"  so  like  the  recipient  of  life,  should  be  where 
life  could  never  be,  the  wondrous  imagination,  with  its  crea- 
tive power,  having  solved  all  things  into  strange  mimic 
creatures, — a  "lusus  naturae  having  sported  herself  with  a 
useless  creation  of  needless  beings." 

What  story  has  the  mountain  to  tell  of  world-wide  geolo- 
gical cataclysms,  of  immeasurable  flourishings  and  sportings 
of  earthquakes  and  volcanoes,  long  sleeping  and  silent,  but 
still  convenient  and  useful  to  geological  theorists  ?  What 
has  the  mountain  to  say  of  Noah's  grand  water-spout,  of 
floods  of  Deucalian,  of  Ptolemaic  and  Mosaic  systems  ? 
When  did  this  veritable  Alleghany  actually  crack  the  shell 
and  protrude  its  spine  from  that  mysterious  mundane  egg 
of  Egyptian  cosmogony  ? 

It  would  surely  be  a  glorious  privilege  to  follow  the  moun- 
tain to  the  dizzy  heights  of  bewildered  speculations,  of  fiery 
pictures  of  whirling  flame-worlds  travelling  through  celes- 


THE   MOUNTAIN.  99 

tial  spaces ;  also  to  follow  it  through  lofty  visions  of  im- 
measurable times,  of  unreckoned  centuries,  of  vast  periods, 
contrasted  with  which  the  date  of  the  first  dawn  of  primeval 
history  is  as  yesterday,  or  any  assignable  period  for  the  origin 
of  our  race  as  to-day  !  A  great  romance  that  would  be,  a 
pedigree  of  the  mountain's  rocks ;  or  the  chronicles  of  the  war 
of  Pluto  and  Neptune,  of  water  and  fire,  the  congelation  of 
primary  crystalline  masses,  or  the  pulverizing,  washing,  and 
hardening  of  secondary  sediments  !  Then  it  would  be  curious 
to  know  what  the  mountain  would  say  to  the  ambitious  intel- 
lectual game-fowls,  who  are  always  so  anxious  to  fight  the 
battles  of  orthodoxy  and  heterodoxy,  and  settle  the  wondrous 
difficulties  of  the  problem :  was  Omnipotent  Power  six  actual 
days,  or  six  millions  of  actual  years  building  these  hills  and 
laying  the  foundation  of  these  everlasting  rocks  ?  Thank- 
ing the  Infinite  profoundly  for  the  sacred  vessels  of  thought 
turned  off  from  the  "  marvellously  quick  and  acute  mind"  of 
the  divine  potter,  Bernard  Palissy,  whilst  his  hand  fabri- 
cated the  lowly  implement  of  clay ;  and  accepting  with 
deepest  love  and  veneration  the  shining  and  immortal 
jewels  chiseled  from  the  soul  of  the  miraculous  stone-cutter, 
Hugh  Miller,  whilst  his  hand  made  plastic  the  humble  rock, — 
we  can  certainly  with  joy  surrender  theoretical  fogs  to  be 
sliced  by  intellectual  Quixotes,  never  ceasing  to  utter  grati- 
tude and  pa3ans  of  gladness  to  find  that  the  mountain  is 
really  here,  arranged  as  a  structure  for  the  ages,  and  clothed 
in  everlasting  beauty, — standing  an  absolute  and  irrefragible 
fact,  its  significance  in  a  system  of  goodness  and  love  shin- 
ing beautifully  and  peacefully  out  upon  the  last  and  greatest 
achievement  of  time,  the  last  most  precious  consummation  of 
the  world,  "that  crowning  of  creation's  birth,"  man  him- 
self. Grand  and  beneficent  are  the  gifts  Nature  has  pro- 
vided for  him  in  the  finish  and  furniture  of  this  his  glorious 
home.  Long  has  been  the  pilgrimage  of  her  tortured  ele- 
ments, through  fire  and  through  water,  to  their  present  per- 
fection of  arrangement  for  the  comfort  and  exstacy  of  this, 
her  darling  child.  A  protracted  warfare  of  the  dragons,  a 


100  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

long,  a  lonely,  barren  road,  from  fiery  vapors  to  solid  rocks, 
from  the  lichen  and  moss  clinging  to  the  naked  lava  or 
granite,  to  the  corn-stalk  and  apple-tree  in  the  prairie  sod. 
Ages  must  struggle  to  feed  the  plant,  ages  again  to  nourish 
the  animal,  and  ages  upon  ages  to  fill  the  streams  which 
circulate  through  this  wondrous  creature,  man.  Incan- 
descent crystallines  would  have  been  a  troublesome  home 
for  the  cereals,  and  only  decades  of  centuries  of  wear 
and  tear  could  give  nourishment  to  their  roots.  Where 
shall  the  elephant  browse  ?  where  shall  the  horse  make  his 
manger  ?  and  wherewithal,  especially,  his  rider  be  clothed 
and  fed  ? 

The  gods  were  at  work,  primeval  powers  forged  the  re- 
fractory elements  into  propriety,  and  life  and  light  flashed 
upon  the  world.  The  lichen  stirred  the  stillness  and  was  a 
fact ;  the  trilobite  became  an  individual,  and  soon  had  bro- 
thers and  cousins  ;  the  saurian  flourished  an  animated  rock, 
the  incarnation  of  the  brute  or  dragon  forces  of  the  world, 
and  made  the  deep  to  boil ;  and  the  tread  of  the  mastodon 
was  heard  in  the  forest.  At  last,  with  order  and  beauty  a 
teeming  earth,  wrapt  by  a  mantle  of  delicious  crystalline  air, 
wandered  a  docile  and  obedient  satellite  through  ethereal 
spaces,  and  the  hand  of  Praxiteles  brought  forth  the  im- 
perishable beauty  slumbering  in  the  marble's  heart ;  Plato 
talked,  amidst  the  groves  of  Academus,  of  divine  virtue  and 
the  immortal  soul ;  and  Cuvier  dreamed  over  that  wondrous 
bone  to  the  music  of  a  galaxy  of  morning  stars  shouting 
together  the  great  song  of  a  reclaimed  earth  and  the  science 
of  geology  !  The  divine  end  seems  to  have  arrived.  With 
quiet  and  majestic  steps  this  system  of  illimitable  goodness 
and  unspeakable  beauty  has  been  approaching  the  haven 
of  its  perfection,  and  the  lover  of  Nature  is  now  left  to  con- 
template and  admire  forever  the  bountiful  provision  which 
has  been  made  for  his  enjoyment  and  delight  on  "this  green 
ball  which  floats  him  through  the  heavens." 


GEOLOGY. 


THE  ROGERS'  CLASSIFICATION 

OF 

PENNSYLVANIA  ROCKS. 

IN  "  Second  Visit"  of  Lyell,  page  249,  we  are  presented 
with  the  following  startling  utterance,  (conveying  despair  to 
many  an  aspiring  genius,  no  doubt,  who  had  been  imagining 
his  direct  connection,  and  blood  and  bone  alliance,  with  the 
stock  of  Shakspeare  and  Milton,)  viz.  "  Since  experience  has 
now  proved  that  there  is,  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  mind,  an  IN- 
HERENT POVERTY  OF  INVENTION  IN  MATTERS  OP  NOMENCLA- 
TURE, ETC."  Taking  up  this  glove,  with  the  full  determina- 
tion of  wiping  out  so  hideous  a  stain  from  the  genius  of  the 
Anglo-American,  or  Yankee  wing,  at  least,  of  this  omniscient 
and  omnipotent  Anglo-Saxon  race,  the  Rogers-brotherhood 
(Anglo-Saxons,  of  course,)  have  made  a  plunge  into  the 
chaos  of  "  inherent  poverty,"  with  the  following  result,  in 
the  shape  of  a  nomenclature  of  the  palaeozoic  rocks  of  the 
State  of  Pennsylvania. 

Primal  series,  No.  1. 

Auroral  series,  

Matinal  series,  Nos.  2  and  3. 

Levant  series,  No.  4. 

Surgent  series,  No.  5. 
Scaleut  series, 

Pre-Meridian  series,  No.  6. 

Meridian  series,  (or  Medidial,)  No.  t. 

9*  101 


102  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

Post-Meridian  series,  (or  Post-Medidial,)  No.  8. 

Cadent  series,  "     " 

Yergent  series,  "     " 

Ponent  series,  No.  "9. 

Yespertine  series,  No.  10. 

Umbral  series,  No.  11. 

Serai  series,  Nos.  12  and  13. 

This  symbolical  category  is  predicated  on  the  dream  of 
the  "deposits  of  a  prodigious  sea,"  and  the  intercalation,  in 
the  eternity  a  parte-ante,  of  an  extraordinary  day,  com- 
puted to  be  seventeen  millions  of  millions  of  years  long, 
from  morning  until  evening  twilight.  The  poets  are  not  all 
dead,  and  the  "inherent  poverty"  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  mind 
is  not  so  positively  "proved  by  experience,"  after  all. 

There  being  a  considerable  row  on  hand,  with  regard  to 
the  appropriation  of  the  glory  of  baptizing  the  great  system 
of  sedimentary  rocks  of  North  America,  it  has  been  thought 
best  to  wait  for  a  subsidence  of  the  mud  stirred  up  by  the 
fury  (we  mean,  of  course,  scientific  zeal ! !)  of  the  intellectual 
Saurians,  who  are  now  contending  for  the  honor  of  deposit- 
ing that  shining  and  eternal  coprolite  in  the  sediment  of  the 
ocean  of  fame,  to  wit,  the  "NOMENCLATURE"  of  said  illus- 
trious palaeozoic  pile.  After  clear  water  has  been  esta- 
blished, and  we  can  see  through  the  turbid  boil  and  battle 
of  words,  there  will  be  substituted  for  the  humble  numbers, 
1,  2,  3,  etc.,  the  elaborated  French,  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew, 
or  Sanscritism,  finally  arranged  by  the  individual,  or  Con- 
gress of  savans,  to  be  THE  THING,  fixed  and  established  for- 
ever. 


CHAPTER  II. 


SOIL  OF  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

THE  term  soil  applies  to  the  film  forming  the  surface  of 
the  pulverulent  mineral  mass  composed  of,  and  covering  the 
rock  formations  of  the  crust  of  the  earth,  and  floating  like  a 
mantle,  or  folded  like  an  outward  integument  around  cer- 
tain portions  of  the  body  of  the  planet  uncovered  by  water. 
The  soil  is  the  point  of  contact  and  union  of  two  separate 
elements  of  creation, — the  worlds  of  organic  and  inorganic 
matter.  In  the  soil,  the  rock,  weary  of  its  brute  immobility 
and  long,  deep  slumber,  tries  to  awaken  into  the  more  de- 
lightful dance  of  the  organic  elements,  and  to  introduce  itself 
to  the  higher  sphere  of  life ;  "  strives  to  become  a  different 
and  attain  the  light."  In  the  soil  the  ponderable  and  im- 
ponderable commence  the  mystic  circulation  of  organic  ex- 
istence. Soils  derive  their  constituent  principles  from  the 
earth  and  the  air ;  the  plant,  or  special  possessor  thereof, 
being  characterized  as  "organic  water  which  is  polarized 
upon  two  sides  towards  the  earth  and  the  air."  From  the 
earth  comes  the  body,  or  mineral  elements  forming  the  sub- 
stance of  soils;  from  the  air  certain  chemical  principles, 
without  which  plants  could  not  grow.  Given  then,  simpli- 
city and  homogeneity  in  component  elements  of  soils,  there 
will  follow  simplicity  and  homogeneity  of  vegetable  forms ; 
and,  as  a  necessary  corollary,  with  greatly  diversified  geo- 
logical, mineralogical,  and  chemical  elements,  will  arrive 
complexity  and  exaltation  in  structure  and  composition  of 
the  plant  world,  existing  as  a  medium  within  and  upon  the 
same. 

Thus,  from  thin  barren  cuticles  of  sand,  forming  the 
covering  of  mountain  heights,  to  the  deep  loam,  rich  with 
chemical  and  organic  elements,  of  the  alluvial  and  diluvial 

103 


104  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

deposits  of  plains  and  valleys,  the  growth  of  the  plant  marks 
the  advancement  of  an  eternal  and  divine  progress. 

The  soil  of  the  Alleghany  Mountain  and  its  parallel 
ridges  exhibits  the  characters,  mineralogical  and  chemical, 
of  the  rock  masses  composing  them.  This  may  be  asserted 
of  almost  every  country,  to  a  certain  extent,  but  it  is  espe- 
cially true  of  mountain  regions  where  there  are  no  alluvial 
or  diluvial  deposits.  The  material  which  forms  the  inor- 
ganic mineral  part  of  soils,  comes,  of  necessity,  originally 
from  the  disintegration  or  wearing  away  of  rocks  which 
have  been  previously  fractured  and  crushed. 

The  soil  of  valleys,  of  drift  formations,  alluvial  deposits, 
and  diluvial  flats,  show  a  more  heterogeneous  composition 
from  the  diversity  of  the  materials  composing  them,  as  they 
exhibit  the  lithological  characters  of  the  regions  through 
which  the  waters  depositing  them  flow,  or  have  flowed,  and 
from  which  they  have  been  derived. 

The  superficial  deposit  of  crushed  rocks,  of  gravel  and 
earth,  supply  these  washings.  They  extend,  with  different 
depths,  from  a  few  inches  to  several  hundred  feet  over  the 
fractured  surfaces  of  the  rock-formations.  From  any  given 
portion  of  country  were  this  deposit  removed,  there  would 
be  presented  the  naked  edges,  jagged  angles,  and  severed 
faces  of  the  different  varieties  of  stratified  or  amorphous  rocks, 
from  which  the  mass  of  superficial  disintegration  was  origi- 
nally derived. 

Of  course,  the  prevailing  mineral  and  geological  elements 
will  give  prevailing  characters  to  this  mass.  If  silicious 
rocks  predominate,  the  soil  will  be  silicious ;  if  argillaceous 
or  calcareous  rocks  are  in  excess,  the  superficial  deposits  of 
soil  and  fragments  will  show  the  predominance,  with  all  the 
characteristics,  of  these  elements.  The  Alleghany  and  its 
associated  ridges  have,  as  their  geology  reveals,  the  sand  or 
silicious  element  the  great  prevailing  item ;  the  largest  and 
most  ponderous  masses  of  the  geological  formations  of  these 
chains  being  silicious  rock.  This  is  especially  true  of  the 
Alleghany  Mountain  itself,  which  has  been  formed,  as  has 


SOIL    OP   THE   MOUNTAIN.  105 

been  shown,  of  the  heavy  sand  group  at  the  base,  and  in  the 
lower  part  of  the  coal  series.  These  rocks  form  the  barren 
heights  and  precipitous  gorges  of  its  knobs  and  gaps.  The 
surface,  in  many  of  the  ravines,  is  formed  almost  exclusively 
of  deposits  of  coarse  fragments,  and  sometimes  ranges  of 
enormous  boulders  of  these  sand  masses.  This  occurs  on 
both  sides  of  the  mountain,  very  large  extents  of  the  surface 
being  frequently  strewed  over  with  these  fragments.  They 
are  often  of  great  size,  exhibiting  the  dimensions  of  40  by  60 
feet,  and  sometimes  30  feet  in  thickness.  They  are  fre- 
quently found  a  considerable  distance  from  the  summit  line, 
in  chains  or  ranges  of  smaller  fragments  of  the  conglomerate 
and  sand  rocks,  and  generally  correspond  to  the  deeper 
notches  in  the  crest  line  of  the  mountain.  As  these  drifts 
are  several  miles  from  the  original  rocks  from  which  they  are 
derived,  the  precise  history  or  mode  of  transportation  affords 
subject-matter  for  contemplation,  interesting  to  the  geologist. 

The  argillaceous  or  slate  material  is  also  abundant  in  the 
masses  of  the  mountain,  giving  a  clayey  character  to  the  soil 
of  many  districts,  and  a  general  intermixture  of  clay  and 
sand  to  almost  all  the  soils  of  the  mountain.  The  extreme 
summits  of  the  knobs  and  ridges  are  sometimes  but  slightly 
covered  with  a  soil  of  almost  pure  sand.  Proceeding  from 
the  southern  line  of  the  State  to  the  northeastern  termination 
of  the  Alleghany,  there  is  a  gradual  increase  of  the  silicious 
element,  with  an  accompanying  predominance  of  the  same 
in  the  soils  of  the  regions  through  which  it  ranges.  This  is 
shown  in  the  wilderness  counties,  especially  the  region  of 
the  outcropping  masses,  forming  the  terminating  ledges  or 
rim  of  the  great  Bituminous  Coal  Basin. 

The  limestone  material  is  not  found  in  great  abundance 
in  the  rocks  of  the  mountain.  The  layers  of  this  rock  are 
thin ;  and  those  impure,  from  intermixture  with  iron,  clay, 
and  sand.  Proceeding  from  the  northern  line  of  the  State 
towards  the  southwest,  where  the  valleys  between  the  Alle- 
ghany and  its  collateral  ridges  are  deeper,  the  limestone 
formations  and  softer  shales  and  slates  thicken,  and  become 


106  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

much  more  important,  giving,  as  usual,  an  increase  of  value 
to  the  soils  of  those  districts,  and  a  corresponding  change  to 
the  whole  surface  of  the  country. 

As  a  general  thing,  then,  the  soils  of  the  mountain  heights 
are  sandy  and  clayey,  but  have,  withal,  a  susceptibility  of 
improvement  through  the  application  of  the  principles  of  scien- 
tific agriculture,  which  has  not  attracted  sufficient  attention 
and  examination. 

On  the  highest  knobs  the  sand  soil  prevails,  and  is  bar- 
ren, except  to  plants  which  affect  such  soils ;  but  some  dis- 
tance off  these  heights,  the  coal  rocks  of  the  western  side 
give  good  soils,  and  the  slates  and  shales  of  the  eastern  base 
of  the  mountain  are  also  susceptible  of  successful  cultivation. 
Of  course,  there  is  a  gradual  modification  and  amelioration 
of  ALL  these  soils  of  the  mountain  and  its  slopes  going  on, 
as  has  been  since  the  elevation  of  the  rocks  to  the  surface, 
and  the  fracturing,  wearing,  softening,  and  pulverizing  of 
the  same,  with  the  gradual  intermingling  of  the  more  com- 
plex pabulum  of  plants  derived  from  the  atmosphere,  namely, 
water,  carbonic  acid,  ammonia,  with  the  mineral  soil  nourish- 
ment also  of  potash,  soda,  lime,  magnesia,  silica,  alumina, 
iron,  sulphuric  acid,  phosphoric  acid,  etc.  This  is  shown  by 
the  natural  succession  of  plants, — the  lichen,  the  moss,  the 
fern,  the  conifers,  and,  lastly,  catkin-bearing  trees  and  Rosa- 
ceae.  The  gradual  succession,  change,  and  death  of  forests  can 
now  be  seen,  as  parts  are  dying  while  other  portions  are 
green  and  flourishing,  showing  a  gradual  surrender  of  the 
pioneer  forest-trees,  and  their  supercession  by  trees  with 
membraneous  leaves,  or  those  requiring  a  richer  or  more 
compound  soil.  Different  parts  of  the  mountain,  then,  show 
all  the  geological  changes  and  soil  metamorphoses  from 
bare  rocks  with  lichen  and  moss,  to  sand  soil  with  pine-tree 
and  huckleberry,  or  clay  and  loam  with  the  oak,  walnut,  and 
apple-tree. 

It  would  seem  to  be  a  habitat  adapted  to  a  variety  of  the 
gramineae  or  grass  family.  These  include  nearly  all  of  the 
common  starch-bearing,  introduced  and  naturalized  plants  or 


SOIL   OF   THE   MOUNTAIN.  107 

cereals,  the  ordinary  food  of  men  and  animals.  Of  this 
class  a  number  seem  to  have  an  obvious  affinity  for  or  adap- 
tation to  the  soil  of  the  mountain  ranges,  as  the  oats,  (Avena 
satwa;)  timothy,  (Phleum  pratense;)  barley,  (Hordeum 
vulgare;)  etc. 

The  proper  bread  cereals,  wheat,  (  Triticum  vulgdre,)  and 
rye,  (Secale  cereale,)  are  grown  with  facility,  especially 
among  the  coal-bearing  rocks  in  the  basins  or  elevated 
valleys,  where  limestone  is  found  mingled  with  slates  and 
shales.  In  the  arenaceous  soils  of  the  heights,  the  crops  of 
these  grains  are  thin.  The  red  clover  (  Trifolium  pratense) 
is  found  growing  with  the  grasses ;  but,  as  this  plant  con- 
tains lime,  potash,  soda,  phosphoric  acid,  sulphuric  acid, 
chlorine,  silica,  magnesia,  and  peroxide  of  iron,  soils  entirely 
destitute  of  these  elements,  especially  lime  and  potash,  are 
not  well  adapted  to  its  growth. 

That  superb  and  kingly  grass,  the  Zea  Mays,  or  Indian 
corn,  does  not  flourish  very  well  in  the  soils  of  the  moun- 
tain. One  or  two  varieties  sometimes  ripen  well,  but  the  sea- 
sons are  too  short  for  all  those  generally  cultivated  to  attain 
perfection,  some  of  them  being  invariably  caught  by  the 
f rost  before  being  fully  matured.  * 

The  soil  of  many  parts  of  this  region  seems  particularly 
adapted  to  the  growth  of  a  number  of  indigenous  and  intro- 
duced pasture-grasses.  It  is  to  be  deplored  that  this  sub- 
ject, and  the  growing  of  stock  adapted  to  such  regions,  has 
not  as  yet  received  the  attention  which  it  merits  from  the 


*  It  may  not  be  amiss  to  notice  another  plant  which  seems  to  pos- 
sess a  strong  attraction  to  the  soil  of  the  mountain,  viz.  the  Solanum 
tuberosum,  commonly  called  potato. 

Notwithstanding  the  story  of  the  botanists,  that  this  plant  was 
originally  native  or  indigenous  to  Peru,  South  America,  many  in- 
habitants of  certain  districts  of  the  mountain  are  fully  and  solemnly 
impressed  with  the  conviction  that  it  belongs  to  those  particular  re- 
gions from  the  Creation,  having  appeared  there  first,  a  primordial 
gift  of  love  from  the  supernals  to  a  heaven-favored  race,  which  was 
finally  to  occupy  that  promised  land. 


108  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

noble  and  hardy  cultivators  of  the  mountain ;  and  the  tra- 
veller is  impressed  with  pain  to  observe  how  few  flocks  and 
herds  graze  upon  its  grass-grown  sides. 

Its  perfect  adaptation  to  the  growth  of  one  domestic 
animal,  the  sheep  and  its  varieties,  alone  would  secure  to 
the  mountain  a  precious  specialty,  and  one  of  inestimable 
value. 

Leaving  out  the  question  of  a  wool  crop,  it  is  well  known 
that  the  grasses  of  the  mountain  will,  in  a  given  time,  de- 
velop more  mutton-tallow  than  any  other  pasture  upon 
which  the  sheep  can  feed.  Sixty  days  of  mountain  grass 
converts  the  sheep  from  a  skeleton  covered  with  skin  into  a 
mass  of  the  finest,  newly-infiltrated  mutton ;  its  hide,  stretched 
over  angular  bones,  metamorphosed  into  a  round,  distended 
sack  of  snow-white  fat. 

In  the  vegetable  world,  however,  and  its  soil  affinities,  its 
vital  relations  to  earth,  air,  and  water,  the  chapter  on  the 
Flora  of  the  mountain  will  show  the  connection  of  cause  and 
effect  in  this  order  of  things. 

One  other  record  must  be  made  with  emphasis,  and  that 
is,  the  entire  FREEDOM  of  the  surface  of  the  mountain  from 
morasses,  swamps,  and  boggy  soils,  with  large  accumulations 
of  vegetable  matter  in  a  state  of  decomposition,  and  the 
consequent  immunity  of  the  Alleghany  heights,  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, from  the  WHOLE  CLASS  of  malarial  diseases.  This 
star  fact  alone,  reposing  upon  the  mountain's  brow,  is  a  suffi- 
cient crown  of  glory. 


CHAPTER  III. 


WATERS  OF  THE  MOUNTAIN, 


;  Each  thing  is  full  of  duty ; 

Waters  united  are  our  navigation ; 
Distinguished,  our  habitation ; 

Below,  our  drink ;  above,  our  meat  : 
Both  are  our  cleanliness.     Hath  one  such  beauty  ? 
Then  how  are  all  things  neat!" 

HERBERT. 


10 


110  THE   MOUNTAIN. 


The  water  of  hills  and  mountains  differs  in  quality,  according  as  it 
niters  through  banks  of  pure  rock,  of  schist,  of  quartz,  or  of  sand, 
from  all  which  substances  it  can  scarcely  derive  any  property  what- 
ever; or  as  it  flows  over  beds  of  potter's  earth,  which  it  neither 
draws  along  with  it  nor  dissolves ;  or,  lastly,  as  it  traverses  ground 
which  is  calcareous,  marly,  gypseous,  impregnated  with  magnesia, 
salt,  or  bitumen.  Waters  of  the  kind  last  mentioned  are  always  very 
much  mixed  with  heterogeneous  substances,  and  for  the  greatest  part 
of  the  year  are  hard,  turbid,  and  unwholesome,  at  least  if  daily  used. 
Hippocrates,  Homer,  and  Plutarch  have  long  ago  condemned  the  use 
of  them.  Those  waters  which  have  clayey  bottoms  are  most  com- 
mon ;  they  unite  those  qualities  which  are  essential  to  salubrity. 
Those  which  flow  from  the  hard  rock  are  still  more  pure  and  limpid, 
as  they  must  undergo  a  process  of  filtration  in  wearing  their  way 
over  a  stony  bed. 

MALTE-BRUN. 


HYDROGRAPHY.  Ill 


HYDROGRAPHY. 

PREFATORY  to  the  chapter  on  the  waters  of  the  mountain, 
it  may  not  be  irrelevant  to  take  a  cursory  view  of  the  gene- 
ral system  of  water-distributions,  of  which  it  forms  a  frac- 
tion. By  consulting  the  maps  and  charts  of  physical  geo- 
graphers, this  will  be  found  the  most  extraordinary  feature 
of  the  Western  Hemisphere.  It  will  soon  be  discovered 
that  the  hydrography  of  the  New  World  has  been  projected 
upon  a  scale  of  unparalleled  magnitude,  and  in  dimensions 
truly  colossal.  In  its  rivers, — unequaled  for  length  and  vo- 
lume of  waters  on  any  other  division  of  the  earth,  draining 
the  richest  and  largest  basins  in  the  world,  terminating  in 
"bays  and  gulfs  which  are.  more  like  wide  arms  of  the  ocean" 
than  rivers ;  in  her  broad,  inland  seas  or  lakes,  chained  to- 
gether, many  of  them,  by  equally  remarkable  streams  and 
straits,  the  whole  embosomed  in  a  soil  exhaustlessly  produc- 
tive, and  washing  a  geological  and  mineralogical  crust  of  in- 
compatible wealth, — there  is  presented  a  chart  of  distribution 
of  bodies  of  water  or  system  of  mundane  hydraulics,  which 
exhibits  a  base  line  for  the  maritime  and  commercial  de- 
partment of  a  social  structure  or  pyramid,  of  which  the  ima- 
gination of  man  has  as  yet  no  dream. 

The  large  lake-chain  itself  presents  features  of  great  in- 
terest in  every  aspect  of  contemplation.  Many  of  their  beds 
extend  hundreds  of  feet  below  the  level  of  the  sea,  while 
their  surfaces  are  several  hundred  feet  above ;  the  whole 
containing  an  aggregated  mass  of  "  more  than  one-half1  of 
all  the  fresh  water  on  the  surface  of  the  globe."*  As  ob- 
jects of  admiration,  they  are  unparalleled  in  beauty  and 
grandeur.  In  the  chapter  of  utilities,  this  system  of  waters 
exhibits  illimitable  resources  and  expansions  in  the  whole 

*  Johnston's  Physical  Atlas. 


112  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

sphere  of  uses  to  man,  revealing  worlds  of  economics,  of 
which  the  present  chapter  of  statistics  gives  no  shadow  of 
intimation. 

It  would  seem  from  the  geological  and  geographic  struc- 
ture of  the  continents,  as  parts  of  the  architecture  of  the 
globe,  and  their  connection  with  the  oceans  of  water  on 
both  sides,  together  with  their  relationship  to  the  meteoric 
elements  and  forces,  or  ocean  of  air  above,  that  some  pri- 
mordial contract  must  have  existed  on  the  question  of  water 
as  one  of  the  few  original  trustworthy  elements  of  the  world, 
and  that  an  infinite  supply  as  a  planetary  agent  was  re- 
quired to  fill  the  bond  for  the  honest  pronunciation  and  real- 
ization of  the  destiny  of  this  hemisphere.  The  prophet  who 
has  its  special  details  to  foretell,  the  political  economist  who 
has  its  tariffs  to  fix,  or  the  statistician  who  has  its  tables  of 
forces  to  establish,  have  each  an  exhaustless  theme ;  and  the 
happy  genius  of  the  hydrography  and  hydrology  of  the 
Americas  has  the  side  of  a  planet  upon  which  to  project  his 
diagrams. 

In  this  place  there  is  only  a  verse  to  recite  of  the  grand 
old  poem  of  waters  called  Appalachian,  it  might  be  said  still 
less,  a  single  line  to  spell  out,  viz.  the  waters  of  the 

ALLEGHANY    MOUNTAIN    MINERAL   AND   PURE. 

The  wrinkled  swell  on  the  Atlantic  side  of  the  continent, 
forming  the  Appalachian  mountain  range,  as  referred  to  in 
the  chapter  on  geology,  forms  a  series  of  hydrographic  axis, 
to  which  the  rivers  on  that  side  of  North  America  owe  their 
origin.  And  here  the  rock-skeleton  of  the  globe  shows  its 
usual  despotism  in  necessitating  geographic  features,  style 
of  topography,  and  consequently  hydrography. 

As  a  result,  we  find  that  from  certain  points  of  elevation, 
or  Appalachian  centres,  there  are  presented  a  series  of  water- 
sheds between  the  inclined  plane  which  stretches  from  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  to  the  highest  range  of  Alleghany  peaks, 
and  the  inclined  plane  which  stretches  westward  and  south- 


HYDROGRAPHY.  113 

westward  from  that  range  of  elevations  to  the  bed  of  the 
Mississippi  River,  which  is  the  great  drain  of  the  streams 
which  flow  over  the  southern  declivity  of  the  vast  central 
basin,  or  the  Mississippi  and  the  Mackenzie  plane  of  the  in- 
terior valley. 

The  Alleghany  Mountain,  as  the  dividing  ridge  in  the 
midst  of  the  eastern  plateau,  is  the  separating  line  or  range 
of  centres  of  the  streams  flowing  through  the  planes  above 
designated.  In  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  we  are  pre- 
sented with  the  third  of  the  five  Appalachian  hydrographi- 
cal  centres  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  continent,  proceeding 
from  the  north,  described  by  physical  geographers.  The 
water-systems  of  these  axes,  and  their  general  connection 
with  the  hydrography  of  the  continent,  is  a  subject  of  ex- 
treme interest.  Leaving  the  parallel  Appalachian  moun- 
tains and  their  groups  of  streams,  the  waters  of  the  Alleghany 
demand  a  brief  but  special  notice. 

The  true  fountains  of  the  streams  being  the  heavens,  or  in 
other  words,  the  waters  which  they  convey  being  all  meteoric 
in  their  origin,  as  from  the  falling  of  rain  and  snow,  with  the 
precipitation  of  vapors,  it  follows  that  the  higher  in  the 
mountain,  and  the  nearer  to  their  springs  or  points  from 
which  they  emerge  after  percolating  the  soil  and  rocks,  the 
freer  and  more  perfect  will  be  their  waters  from  earthy 
elements,  and  the  least  changed  will  they  be  from  their  ori- 
ginal meteoric  condition.  After  falling,  the  waters  soon  burst 
forth  in  springs  on  the  heights  of  the  ranges,  and  seek  by 
the  first  declivity  to  flow  east  or  west,  as  the  lines  of  denuda- 
tion may  necessitate. 

The  first  springs  which  rise  near  the  summits  in  the  gaps 
or  gorges  of  the  mountain,  or  in  the  valleys  or  washes  from 
its  sides,  form  swift  and  rushing  streams  which  fall  over 
rocky  beds,  broken  by  frequent  rapids. 

It  is  often  observed  that  these  rivulets  in  the  heights  of  the 
mountain,  rising  from  the  same  spring,  separate  and  flow 
in  opposite  directions,  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  Atlantic 
Ocean. 

10* 


114  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

Separating  at  their  cradle,  the  young  streams  part  to  tra- 
verse a  whole  continent,  before  they  again  unite  in  the  great 
mother's  bosom  of  the  ocean  from  whence  they  came.  The 
waters  which  flow  east  into  the  Atlantic,  have  generally  steep 
and  rocky  beds  from  the  mountain-summit  to  the  first  range 
of  valleys,  after  which  they  take  their  courses  with  slower 
and  more  regular  currents  to  the  sea. 

Their  channels  are  sometimes  in  the  line  of  the  valleys,  and 
again  cleave  the  groups  of  parallel  mountains  by  a  series  of 
water  gaps,  forming  that  most  extraordinary  combination  of 
the  picturesque  and  grand  found  only  in  the  startling  land- 
scape pictures  of  this  beautiful  region. 

The  cause  of  the  greater  rapidity  of  the  currents  of  the 
eastern  streams  is  obvious,  as  the  eastern  side  of  the  moun- 
tain presents  a  bold  and  precipitous  escarpment, — a  wall,  as  it 
were,  rising  above  the  valleys  at  its  base. 

Through  the  notches,  ravines,  and  gaps  cut  into  this  jut- 
ting buttress  or  rampart,  rush  the  streams  that  flow  directly 
east.  It  would  be  difficult  to  conceive  anything  more  at- 
tractive, wild,  and  wonderful  than  these  swift  and  arrowy 
streams  pouring  over  falls  and  rapids,  or  rushing  and  boiling 
through  their  rocky  channels. 

On  the  western  side  of  the  Alleghany  Mountain  the 
streams  have  slower  and  gentler  currents,  presenting  irregu- 
lar courses,  and  with  more  winding  and  circuitous  channels. 
As  the  high  table-lands  fall  off  more  gradually  from  the 
Alleghany  spurs  westward  to  the  Mississippi,  the  streams 
flow  through  the  irregular  washes  of  denudation  which  sepa- 
rate the  labyrinth  of  hills  more  slowly.  Many  of  these 
streams  are  quiet  and  sluggish,  appearing  as  mere  passive 
and  dead  drains  of  the  surface.  Their  waters  appear  dif- 
ferent from  those  of  the  eastern  shed,  where  they  flow  through 
the  beds  of  the  larger  currents.  Descending  these  streams 
the  waters  become  turbid  from  the  intermingling  of  the  softer 
mineral  elements  which  form  this  region. 

The  larger  bodies  of  water  here  show  the  well-known 
muddy  and  turbid  character  of  western  rivers.  They  form 


HYDROLOGY.  115 

a  striking  contrast  with  the  crystalline  and  limpid  currents  of 
the  eastern  drainage.  In  the  heights  of  the  mountains, 
however,  both  sets  of  brooks  near  their  fontal  springs  pre- 
sent the  same  characters,  frequently,  as  we  have  seen,  flowing 
from  the  same  rock.  The  western  streams,  from  the  above 
designated  characters  of  tortuousness  and  sluggishness,  are 
also  more  liable  to  dry  up  at  a  distance  from  their  spring- 
heads in  the  mountains. 

The  springs,  themselves,  are  not  generally  very  large,  as 
there  are  not  in  the  mountain  any  extensive  limestone  forma- 
tions or  soluble  rocks  through  which  water  can  make  subter- 
ranean caverns,  consequently  there  are  not  any  considerable 
bodies  of  water  suddenly  emerging  from  the  earth  in  full- 
born  creeks  and  rivers,  as  in  the  large  limestone  districts  east 
and  west. 

As  might  be  expected  in  the  rocky  heights  of  the 
mountain, 

"From  beneath  whose  chin 

The  FOUNTS  of  rolling  streams 

Their  race  begin," 

the  waters  are  of  exceeding  purity. 

The  rain  and  snows  fall,  and  after  short  percolation  through 
the  different  rock  formations  break  out  in  fresh  and  beautiful 
springs.  As  to  the  mineralization  of  their  waters  they  show 
the  characters  of  the  rocks  through  which  they  flow.  If  the 
mineral  substances  composing  these  formations  are  soluble, 
their  waters  will  show  their  presence ;  if  insoluble,  they  will 
be  more  or  less  free  of  stony  contents,  the  earth  elements 
of  waters  being  derived  from  the  filters  or  rocks  through 
which  they  pass,  some  of  their  gaseous  substances  being  re- 
tained from  the  air. 

This  point  in  the  treatment  of  the  subject  introduces  an- 
other division  of  the  chapter  on  waters,  namely,  its 

HYDROLOGY, 

or  the  chemical  character,  therapeutic,  virtues,  and  other 
properties  of  waters.  For  besides  the  purposes  of  irriga- 


116  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

tion,  navigation,  and  other  mere  mechanical  values  of  the  vast 
and  wonderful  circulatory  system  of  the  Americas,  (to  which 
slight  allusion  has  been  made,)  for  the  commodities  of  trade, 
and  the  perpetually  expanding  world  of  life,  a  full  estimate 
of  the  uses  of  the  waters  of  the  New  World  present  an- 
other phase  of  great  significance.  This  is  the  consideration 
of  the  hygienic  and  therapeutic  value  of  waters,  pure,  mine- 
ral, and  thermal,  in  their  relationship  to  human  health,  and 
consequently  to  human  happiness. 

In  this  department  we  are  presented  with  a  rich  and  ex- 
tensive variety;  and  here  also  has  Nature  been  lavish  in  her 
gifts  of  value.  Almost  every  water  that  has  been  the  subject 
of  scientific  analysis, — and  the  catalogue  comprises  all  that 
have  been  styled  mineral  waters, — are  here  found  in  profusion. 
In  some  of  the  oldest  inhabited  points  of  the  continent  there 
are  springs  whose  reputed  virtues,  descending  by  tradition 
from  the  aborigines  of  the  country,  science  has  discovered 
to  contain  quantities  of  mineral  elements. 

Romance  and  imagination  have  had  much  to  do  in  this  de- 
partment, as  the  half-fabulous  stories  of  the  virtue  of  many 
springs,  as  recorded  by  their  special  historians,  would  am- 
ply testify :  still  the  real  virtues  of  a  number  are  unde- 
niable, and  their  efficacy  as  remedial  agents  unquestionable. 
Throughout  the  United  States  this  class  of  waters  is  abun- 
dant, sometimes  characterized  by  the  predominance  of  one 
element,  sometimes  by  another.  The  leading  items  in  the 
chemical  inventory  of  their  contents  decides  the  character 
or  class  to  which  they  belong.  They  are  variously  classified 
by  different  writers  on  the  subject.  That  of  Dr.  Bell*  in  his 
recent  work  being  perhaps  the  most  sensible  for  practical 
purposes,  will  serve  our  purpose,  being  plain  and  simple 
and  founded  on  obvious  qualities  addressing  the  senses  of 
all. 

These  are,  first,  acidulous  or  carbonated  ;  second,  saline  ; 

*  Dr.  Bell's  excellent  little  book  on  "mineral  springs"  should  be 
in  the  hands  of  every  traveller,  invalid,  and  especially  every  physician. 


HYDROLOGY.  117 

third,  sulphureous  ;  fourth,  chalybeate.  loduretted,  Bromu- 
retted,  and  acid  waters  are  by  some  writers  added  to  these 
classes.  Still  further  defined,  they  stand  thus  : — 

FIRST. 

The  acidulous  waters  contain  and  evolve  gases,  principally 
carbonic  acid,  making  them  pungent  to  the  taste  and  spark- 
ling. They  hold  in  solution  saline  substances,  mostly  car- 
bonates of  lime,  magnesia,  soda,  and  iron,  with  common 
salt. 

SECOND. 

Saline  waters  abound  in  salts,  sulphate  of  magnesia  or 
Epsom  salts,  sulphate  of  soda  or  Glauber  salts,  the  medi- 
cinal properties  of  which  are  well  known  to  all.  Chloride 
of  sodium  or  common  salt,  and  carbonic  acid  are  sometimes 
found  in  them. 

THIRD. 

The  sulphureous,  which  are  characterized  by  a  gas  charged 
with  sulphur,  called  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  or  sulphohydric 
acid  gas.  The  presence  of  this  gas  is  recognized  by  well- 
known  and  familiar  tests.  This  class  is  again  subdivided 
into  those  waters  which  contain  free  sulphuretted  hydrogen 
gas,  those  which  contain  carbonic  acid  or  acidulo-sulphure- 
ous  and  those  which  contain  carbonic  acid  and  sulphuretted 
hydrogen,  and  those  also  which  contain  iron  with  other 
sulphureous  combinations. 

FOURTH. 

This  class  embraces  the  chalybeate  or  ferruginous  waters. 
The  iron  in  most  of  these  waters  is  in  a  state  of  a  carbonate 
of  protoxide  dissolved  in  carbonic  acid.  They  also  contain 
the  sulphate  of  iron,  or  common  copperas. 

The  medicinal  qualities  of  these  waters  are  of  course 
the  therapeutic  properties  of  iron  in  general.  There  is 
another  division  of  waters  into  cold,  and  thermal  or  heated. 
All  the  four  classes  of  mineralized  waters  are  found  in  either 


118  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

of  these  classes  ;  there  being  cold  and  thermal  waters  hold- 
ing all  of  the  above  chemical  elements  in  solution.  The 
mineral  and  gaseous  contents  of  these  waters  are  often  in 
great  quantities  and  in  almost  every  conceivable  proportion. 
Some  of  them  have  attained  world-wide  reputations  in  the 
modification,  alleviation,  and  cure  of  different  classes  of  dis- 
eases. Many  of  them  are  peculiar  and  rare  in  the  combina- 
tion of  their  mineral  contents ;  whilst  some  of  the  thermal 
waters  of  the  southern,  interior,  and  western  side  of  the  con- 
tinent have  scarcely  a  parallel  for  intensity  of  heat,  in  any 
other  part  of  the  world.  The  attempt  to  perpetrate  any- 
thing like  an  elaborate  treatise  on  mineral  waters  would  of 
course  be  out  of  place  here,  but  a  hurried  enumeration  or 
catalogue  of  the  most  important  mineral  waters  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  of  the  continent  as  far  as  analyzed  by  science  and 
registered,  may  not  be  deemed  so. 

The  highest  knobs  of  the  Alleghany  being  composed  of 
hard  silicious  and  argillaceous  masses,  the  materials  of  which 
are  only  slightly  soluble  at  low  temperatures,  the  waters 
which  emerge  from  them  are  nearly  in  the  same  condition  in 
which  they  fell  from  the  clouds.  Many  of  this  class  of  springs 
are  almost  perfectly  pure  water  with  all  the  characters  of 
rain-water,  and  a  near  approach  to  absolute  or  chemical 
water.  This  is  the  character  of  the  higher  or  summit 
springs.  The  other  members  of  the  rock-group  forming 
the  mountain,  have  each  their  class  of  characteristic  springs. 
Throughout  the  coal  series  we  are  presented  with  a  variety 
of  mineral  elements  in  the  waters.  Common  salt  or  the 
chloride  of  sodium  abounds  in  great  quantities  in  some  of  the 
rocks.  Where  they  are  depressed  in  the  synclinal  troughs 
further  in  the  coal  measures,  salt  is  manufactured  from  them 
by  perforating  the  masses  containing  it.  Where  they  crop 
out,  the  rocks  sometimes  show  the  presence  of  salt  by  efflo- 
resence  and  sloughing  on  their  surfaces.  These  formations 
also  contain  bromine  and  iodine,  or  the  elements  of  sea-water, 
the  water  used  at  the  salt-wells  showing  their  presence  in 
considerable  proportions. 


HYDROLOGY.  119 

The  coal-seams  and  associated  shales  contain  sulphur  and 
iron  in  a  state  of  chemical  combination,  called  sulphuret  of 
iron,  or  pyrites.  The  chemical  decomposition  of  this  mate- 
rial, in  these  rock  masses,  gives  rise  to  several  varieties  of 
mineral  waters.  First,  to  waters  containing  the  salts  of 
iron,  or  proper  chalybeate  waters.  Secondly,  to  acidulous 
waters,  or  those  which  contain  free  sulphuric  acid;  and 
thirdly,  to  proper  sulphur  waters,  or  those  which  contain 
sulphuretted  hydrogen  in  a  state  of  solution,  constituting 
the  celebrated  sulphur  waters  of  writers  on  mineral  springs. 
From  some  of  the  calcareous  and  magnesian  masses  we  have 
waters  of  another  character,  namely,  waters  containing  salts 
of  the  alkaline  bases,  or  the  class  of  aperient  waters. 

We  are  thus  presented,  in  the  spring  system  of  the  Alle- 
ghany,  with  an  interesting  group,  showing  almost  every 
stage  of  mineralization,  from  the  pure  and  limpid  water  of 
the  sand-rock,  to  the  highly-charged,  earthy  salt  solutions 
of  the  coal-seam  and  its  accompanying  slates.  The  moun- 
tain, then,  stands  in  the  chapter  of  uses  also  as  a  great 
laboratory,  in  which  a  number  of  waters,  mineral  and  pure, 
are  produced ;  and  this  alone  would  seem  a  sufficient  end  or 
final  cause  for  its  existence.  The  student  of  another  order 
of  values  might  pass  its  song  of  the  waters  with  indifference, 
and  find  in  its  coal-seams — those  magazines  of  wealth  and 
power  to  man,  in  its  valuable  forests  and  soil,  its  masses  of 
iron,  and  useful  rocks — the  only  objects  worthy  of  his  atten- 
tion, and  the  only  end  for  which  it  was  desirable  to  create 
the  mountain  at  all.  'Tis  thus  to  the  partial  and  one-sided, 
the  narrow  and  utilitarian,  that  the  world  ever  appears. 
But  such  is  the  order  of  things,  that  "  each  end  is  a  begin- 
ning;" there  are  no  private  contracts, — favoriteism  and 
selfishness  being  unknown  in  nature.  The  worm  borer  in 
the  stick  of  timber,  and  the  human  borer  in  the  coal-seam; 
the  sap-sucker  penetrating  the  bark  of  the  sugar-tree,  and 
the  salt-boiler  perforating  the  brine-rock;  the  caterpillar 
eating  the  leaves  of  the  linden  for  bread,  and  the  painter 
sketching  its  foliage  for  beauty,  may  each  suppose  that  the 


120  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

important  individual  has  a  universe  to  himself, — "is  unre- 
lated, unallied."  "See,  all  things  for  MY  use,"  especially 
this  thing;  but  the  worm's  log  must  make  the  coal-digger 
a  prop  for  the  roof  of  his  drift ;  the  sap-sucker'^  maple  must 
make  the  salt-sucker  a  handle  for  his  drill ;  while  the  cater- 
pillar's linden-tree  will  make  an  excellent  bowl,  from  which 
the  hungry  artist  might  eat  his  mush  and  milk.  Need  the 
brook-trout,  sporting  in  the  mossy  rock-bed  of  the  crystal 
torrent,  quarrel  with  the  pale  valetudinarian  who  drinks 
new  life  from  its  pure  waters?*  "All  things  are  kind  to 
our  flesh,  in  their  descent  and  being,"  and  of  one  wondrous 
web,  although  cut  in  different  patterns,  and  apparently  for 
different  ends,  are  all  the  creatures  of  the  earth. 

A  scientific  estimate  of  the  intrinsic  and  perpetual  worth 
of  things  will  give  to  the  pure  freestone  or  soft  water  of  the 
mountain  the  greatest  consideration;  this  is  its  crowning 
blessing — the  true  heal-all  and  specific  for  the  maladies  of 
men.  Springing,  as  we  have  observed,  from  the  large  sili- 
cious  formations  which  make  the  highest  spurs  of  the  moun- 
tain, the  waters  have  the  mean  annual  temperature  of  the 
rock  from  which  they  issue ;  and  they  are  frequently  so  pure 
that  chemical  tests  give  but  traces  of  any  foreign  element 
whatever,  thus  demonstrating  their  constitution  to  be  as 
nearly  as  can  ever  occur  in  nature,  absolute  or  pure  water,  f 

*  Provided  always,  of  course,  that  said  valetudinarian  be  not  in 
fell  purpose  intent  on  predatory  invasion  of  the  sacred  haunts  of  said 
trout,  or  be  armed  with  cruel,  barbed  instruments  of  death,  wickedly 
concealed  by  worm  writhing  in  the  tortures  of  longitudinal  transfixa- 
tion,  or  seductively  hidden  within  the  treacherous  folds  of  brilliant 
feathers,  stolen  from  the  neck  of  chicken-cock,  styled,  in  Waltonian 
phrase,  "  The  Fly." 

f  Absolutely  pure  natural  water  does  not  exist.  Water  falling- 
from  the  clouds  contains  carbonic  acid  gas  and  ammonia.  "  Decom- 
position of  silicious  and  other  rocks  occurs  from  the  action  of  water 
holding  in  solution  carbonic  acid,  and  the  organic  acids  arising  from 
the  decay  of  vegetable  matter."  Silica  is  never  absent  from  natural 
water,  and  is  greater  in  surface  waters  slightly  impregnated  with 
mineral  ingredients.  The  analysis  of  Sterry  Hunt,  of  the  waters  of 


HYDROLOGY.  121 

It  follows,  from  this,  that  for  all  the  multifarious  order  of 
uses  to  which  man  applies  this  indispensable  element,  from 
the  building  up  of  his  "heaven-labored  form,  erect,  divine," 
to  the  humblest  of  domestic  uses,  pure  water  is  the  great 
and  indispensable  want;  pure  water  is  the  best,  under  all 
conditions,  to  bathe  in,  consequently  the  best  to  wash  the 
human  integuments  or  skin  in ;  it  is  the  best  water  to  wash 
his  outer  covering  or  clothes  in ;  and  emphatically  the  best  to 
supply  the  perpetually  wasting  vital  streams  within,  or  blood 
currents  of  his  body. 

The  question  of  temperature  or  thermalism  is  one  of  in- 
terest and  importance.  As  a  general  thing,  the  springs  of 
the  mountain  have  the  general  mean  of  their  localities. 
Some  of  the  waters  which  are  highly  mineralized,  and  which 
flow  from  the  coal-bearing  rocks,  have  a  slight  elevation  of 
their  temperature.  This  is,  no  doubt,  attributable  to  the 
chemical  changes  of  decomposition  which  occur  within  the 
masses,  from  which  the  water  derives  its  mineral  contents. 
Of  this  order  is  the  well-known  heat  arising  from  the  decom- 
position of  pyrites,  which  has  been  known  to  ignite  coal  and 
other  substances  in  contact  with  it.  Of  the  class  of  warm 
and  hot  springs,  or  those  having  a  temperature  over  one 
hundred  degrees,  there  are  no  representatives  in  the  moun- 
tain, as  yet  discovered  in  Pennsylvania. 

Farther  southwest  the  Appalachian  range  of  fractures 
and  axes  give  some  true  thermal  waters.  See  Moorman's 
book  on  Springs  of  Virginia,  and  Geological  Reports. 

Of  the  individual  springs  of  medicated  waters  of  Penn- 
sylvania, a  short  notice  will  be  in  place.  Some  of  these 
waters  have  been  the  subject  of  extravagant  encomiums,  and 
fictitious  chemical  analysis,  purporting  to  possess  fabulous  and 

the  Ottawa  and  St.  Lawrence  rivers,  gives  the  presence  of  chloride 
of  sodium  and  potassium,  sulphate,  carbonate,  and  bromate  of  soda, 
carbonate  of  lime  and  magnesia,  silica,  and  a  trace  of  alumina.  The 
analysis  of  Schuylkill  water,  by  Booth,  Garrett,  and  Camac,  gives 
the  presence  of  silex,  lime,  soda,  potash,  magnesia,  alumina,  or  oxide 
of  iron,  the  acids  being  sulphuric  and  carbonic. 

11 


122  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

impossible,  because  incompatible,  elements,  with  extensive 
manifestoes  or  representations,  in  the  ordinary  mode  of  publi- 
cation of  such  things.  Many  have  received  no  notice,  or  but 
slight  and  comparatively  insignificant  attention.  The  true 
worth  of  these  unknown  and  neglected  waters  will  soon  be 
declared  to  the  world,  as  their  effects  are  being  clearly  pro- 
nounced by  critical  observation  and  experience.  As  the  need 
of  them  shall  be  felt,  they  will  attract  attention  and  experi- 
mentation until  their  true  character  shall  be  demonstrated, 
and  their  great  value  declared. 


PENNSYLVANIA   MINERAL   SPRINGS.  123 


PENNSYLVANIA  MINERAL  SPRINGS. 

SEVERAL  members  of  the  series  of  geological  formations, 
constituting  the  surface  of  this  State,  give  origin  to  valuable 
mineral  springs.  When  a  full,  minute,  and  perfect  explora- 
tion, such  as  has  now  been  partially  achieved  by  the  geo- 
logical survey  of  the  State,  shall  be  made  known  to  the 
world,  it  will  be  discovered  that  Pennsylvania,  so  munifi- 
cently provided  with  mineral  resources  of  so  great  a  variety, 
and  so  exhaustless  in  quantity,  is  also  as  richly  furnished 
with  a  diversity  of  mineral  waters.  This  would  follow  as  a 
necessary  consequence ;  the  source  of  all  mineralization  of 
water  being,  as  we  have  seen,  the  rock  formations  of  the 
earth,  which  are  the  medicated  media  or  sieves,  through 
which  it  passes  after  its  descent  from  the  clouds.  Diversity 
of  composition  in  mineral  masses  would  then  give,  conse- 
quently, a  variety  of  mineralized  waters.  This  we  find  to  be 
eminently  the  case  throughout  the  State  of  Pennsylvania ; 
and  thus  it  ultimately  will  be  discovered  that  the  State  which 
persists  with  such  obstinate  pertinacity  to  call  herself,  and 
insists  upon  being  called  by  everybody  else,  the  EMPIRE 
STATE,  with  her  large  catalogue  of  mineral  waters,  will  only 
have  enjoyed  her  pre-eminence  in  this  particular  because  the 
Yankee  has  been  sharp  enough  to  endeavor  to  ascertain  the 
true  character  of  things  about  him,  and  smart  enough  to  tell 
it  to  the  world  when  he  did — the  splendid  final  report  of 
the  Geological  Survey  of  New  York,  and  its  beautifully  ela- 
borated division — on  the  chemistry  of  her  rocks  and  mineral 
springs,  having  long  been  before  the  world.* 

In  this  department  it  is  to  be  deeply  deplored  that  Penn- 
sylvania has  so  long  remained  in  darkness,  and  her  indus- 

*  Mineralogy  of  New  York,  by  Dr.  Beck. 


124  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

trious,  intelligent,  and  enterprising  people,  anxious  to  de- 
velop her  mineral  resources  of  every  order,  after  the 
expenditure  of  immense  sums  of  money,  and  the  laborious 
efforts  for  years  of  some  twenty  gentlemen  of  highly  respect- 
able intellectual  endowments  and  undoubted  scientific  attain- 
ments, have  been  denied  access  to  the  results  of  the  explora- 
tions of  this  corps,  until  the  existence  of  such  results  was 
mythical,  and  they  had  come  to  be  regarded  as  eternally 
forbidden  fruits. 

The  aggregated  labors  of  the  accomplished  and  indefati- 
gable men  forming  the  corps  of  the  Geological  Survey  of 
Pennsylvania,  will  soon  appear  in  the  form  of  the  final 
report  of  that  survey,  which,  with  the  original  survey,  has 
now,  strange  to  say,  been  in  progress  nearly  a  quarter  of  a 
century. 

When  this  achievement,  so  long  and  ardently  prayed  for, 
shall  have  been  fully  realized  and  actually  accomplished,  by 
the  finished,  final  report  being  handed  at  last  to  the  people 
of  Pennsylvania,  it  is  to  be  hoped  it  will  awaken  a  new  spirit 
of  inquiry  with  regard  to  her  mineral  resources,  and  repro- 
duce, in  these  times  of  despondency  and  industrial  paralysis, 
a  new  tidal  wave  of  healthy  progress  and  sound  expansion. 
Will  it  not  also  excite  a  new  interest  in,  and  impart  a  new 
impetus  to,  the  practical  application  of  the  waters  of  the 
State, — to  the  whole  class  of  uses  originally  designed  by 
nature  ? 

Commencing  below,  and  at  the  base  of  the  group  of 
palaeozoic  formations,  we  are  presented  with  a  few  valuable 
springs  in  the  metamorphic  rocks  or  gneissic  group. 

The  waters  of  these  rocks  have  not  attracted  the  attention 
they  deserve,  and  have  received,  in  some  of  the  neighboring 
States,  where  they  are  found  to  be  of  a  valuable  character. 
Proceeding  upward,  in  the  rock  series,  we  find  in  the  first 
large  limestone  formation,  (No.  2,)  a  number  of  springs. 
Some  of  these  are  of  great  volume ;  the  rocks  being  soluble, 
the  waters  which  fall  in  the  valleys  gradually  wear  deep 
subterranean  sewers  and  caves ;  the  springs  are  frequently 


PENNSYLVANIA    MINERAL    SPRINGS.  125 

of  immense  size.  These  are  generally  common  springs  of 
limestone  water,  or  holding  in  solution  the  salts  of  lime. 
There  are  some  true  mineral  springs  which  have  attracted 
attention  in  this  group,  both  in  Pennsylvania  and  Yirginia. 

In  the  transition  between  this  formation  and  the  one  be- 
low, the  waters  are  also  frequently  mineralized.  In  the 
passage  into  the  formation  above,  the  dark  slate  group, 
which  contains  a  number  of  mineral  elements,  there  have 
been  noticed  some  valuable  waters,  as  also  in  No.  3  itself. 

In  the  fourth  formation,  (No.  4,)  which  we  have  seen,  is  a 
large  accumulation  of  silicious  strata,  there  is  but  little  variety 
in  the  water,  as  the  quartzose  elements,  constituting  almost 
the  entire  substance  of  the  formation,  are  but  slightly  soluble 
in  water  at  the  temperature  of  the  earth  The  waters  of  this 
formation  are  generally,  then,  soft  and  pure,  containing  few 
mineral  or  organic  substances  in  solution  or  suspension. 
The  next  formation  above,  or  fifth  of  the  series,  being  a 
slate  group  with  lime,  magnesian,  and  iron-ore  strata  inter- 
mingling, the  springs  are  consequently  more  diversified  in 
their  character  than  the  preceding,  and  belong  to  the 
classes  carbonated,  saline,  and  chalybeate.  The  next  forma- 
tion, sixth  in  the  ascending  series,  is  a  limestone,  (No.  6,) 
with  a  few  interlayers  of  slate.  Some  valuable  waters 
emerge  from  this  formation.  Succeeding  this  is  a  small 
sand  group  with  some  slate  layers,  too  limited  generally  in 
its  development  to  give  character  to  the  waters  which  pass 
through  it.  The  next  formation,  olive  slate,  (No.  8,)  of  the 
series  is  an  enormous  mass  of  slate  or  argillaceous  strata 
with  silicious  interminglings.  There  are  also  in  the  lower 
part  of  the  formation  some  calcareous  layers ;  also  a  quan- 
tity of  the  carbonate  and  sulphuret  of  iron.  That  portion 
of  the  formation  containing  these  substances  is  a  soft  black 
friable  slate.  As  would  be  expected  from  the  number  of 
mineral  elements  above  enumerated,  most  of  which  possess 
strong  chemical  affinity  for  decomposition,  and  of  course  the 
reproduction  of  new  compounds,  many  of  which  are  soluble 
in  water,  it  would  of  course  follow  that  the  springs  of  this 

11* 


126  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

mass  would  exhibit  diversity  in  mineral  characters.     The 
next  formation  above,  (No.  9,)  is  a  slate  and  sand  group  of 
large  extent  with  few  soluble  elements.     In  some  portions 
of  the  State  it  contains  iron  in  different  forms,  "and  here  of 
course  mineral  waters  might  be  looked  for.     The  formation 
succeeding  this  (No.  10  of  the   series)  being  constituted 
principally  of  coarse  heavy  silicious  masses,  almost  insoluble, 
gives  consequently  common  unmineralized  springs.      The 
next  is  the  shale  formation,  (No.  11,)  with  lime  layers,  and 
succeeding  this  is  the  Conglomerate  and  Coal  Series,  consti- 
tuting the  summit  of  the  whole  group.     It  is  made  up,  as 
we  have  seen  in  the  chapter  on  geology,  of  sandstone  layers, 
slate   and   shale   strata,  limestone  layers,  and  coal-seams. 
From  this  extensive  range  of  mineral  elements  it  would 
naturally  be  inferred  that  we  would  be  presented  with  a  cor- 
responding number  of  mineral  waters.    This  we  accordingly 
discover  to  be  the  fact.    In  the  lower  part  of  the  carbonifer- 
ous group  we  find  true  saliferous   or   salt-bearing  strata. 
In  certain  portions  of  the  State  these  are  perforated  by  bor- 
ing from  a  few  hundred  to  many  hundred  feet  in  depth,  and 
from  these  borings,  or  wells,  as  they  are  called,  large  quanti- 
ties of  the  finest  common  salt  are  manufactured.     They  are 
situated  in  the  bituminous  coal  series  upon  the  tributaries  of 
the  Alleghany  and  Monongahela  rivers.    Of  these  the  Cone- 
maugh  and  Kiskiminetas  and  Sewickly  are  the  most  exten- 
sively worked.     The  water  of  these  salt-wells  also  contains 
iodine  and  bromine,  which  have  been  made  from  them  in 
small  quantities,  also  salts  of  magnesia  and  lime  in  appreci- 
able quantities  ;  they  are  classified,  however,  among  the  pure 
brine   or  salt  waters.      The  shales,   limestones,  and  coal- 
seams  give  rise  to  other  classes  of  waters  containing  mineral 
elements.     We  consequently  find  in  this  region,  as  has  been 
remarked  in  the  general  observations  on  the  hydrology  of  the 
mountain,  representatives  of  most  of  the  classes  of  medi- 
cated waters, — the  acidulous  and  carbonated  occurring  where 
the  alkaline  bases  prevail,  and  the  saline  in  the  region  where 
the  rocks  containing  salt  can  be  penetrated.    It  is,  however, 


PENNSYLVANIA   MINERAL    SPRINGS.  127 

the  classes  of  sulphureous  and  chalybeate  waters  that  this 
formation  supplies  most  abundantly.  The  origin  of  these 
materials  in  the  waters  is  obvious.  Free  sulphuric  acid  is 
found  in  many  springs  coming  from  coal-seams,  forming  true 
sour  or  acid  waters.  The  association  of  mineral  waters  in 
Pennsylvania  with  fractures  and  dislocations  of  the  rock 
strata,  or  axes  and  faults,  shows  the  same  law  as  observed  by 
geologists  in  New  York  and  Yirginia.  The  recent  report 
of  Sterry  Hunt  to  Mr.  William  E.  Logan,  in  the  Geological 
Survey  of  Canada  for  185T,  presents  an  emphatic  confirma- 
tion of  the  same  law,  all  the  mineral  springs  reported  issuing 
from  the  palaeozoic  formations  of  the  Lower  Silurian  in  the 
line  of  axes,  fractures  and  dislocations,  as  at  other  places. 
Whether  the  suggestions  of  the  geologists,  many  of  which 
appear  wise,  are  the  real  philosophy  on  the  subject,  may  re- 
quire some  more  observation  of  facts  to  demonstrate.  The 
suggestions  have  the  highest  plausibility  to  support  them, 
and  are  ardently  advocated  by  Forbes,  Daubeny,  and  some 
American  geologists. 

Although  the  mineral  waters  of  Pennsylvania  have  not 
received  the  attention  they  deserve,  still  there  are  a  number 
of  springs  which  have  acquired  justly  merited  celebrity; 
they  belong  to  the  classes  already  enumerated.  Some  of 
them  have  been  in  use  for  many  years,  and  have  enjoyed  a 
wide  and  extended  reputation  ;  whilst  others,  more  recently 
discovered,  enjoy  a  more  limited  popularity,  and  have  a  more 
restricted  and  local  faith  attached  to  their  virtues.  Among 
those  longest  known  and  best  established  in  their  reputation 
are  the 

BEDFORD  SPRINGS. 

They  are  among  the  first-noticed  springs  of  the  State,  and 
are  situated  near  the  town  of  Bedford,  in  the  county  of  the 
same  name.  Their  waters  flow  into  one  of  the  tributaries  of 
the  Juniata  River.  There  are  here  several  springs  which 
are  asserted  to  possess  different  characters,  and  all  flow  from 


128  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

the  same  geological  formation.  This  is  the  limestone  situ- 
ated between  the  large  slate  formations ;  the  Corniferous 
Limestone  of  the  New  York  Geological  Reports,  and  the 
sixth  formation  in  the  Pennsylvania  group,  (No.  6.)  Above 
this  formation  is  the  thin  porous  sandstone  of  Formation  7 ; 
succeeded  by  the  large  slate  and  shale  groups  already  spoken 
of.  As  we  have  seen,  the  lower  part  of  Formation  8  con- 
tains quantities  of  sulphuret  of  iron,  and  the  decomposition 
of  this  substance  with  the  consequent  liberation  of  sulphuric 
acid,  (the  limestone  itself  containing  strata  of  a  peculiar 
fetid  rock,  full  of  organic  remains  and  magnesia,)  is  un- 
doubtedly the  origin  of  the  salts  of  the  springs  which  issue 
from  it.  There  are  here  several  minor  foldings  or  waves  of 
the  rocks  between  the  large  axes  of  the  mountains  surround- 
ing the  valley  in  which  the  springs  are  situated.  These 
form  small  anticlinal  axes  and  synclinal  troughs,  some  of 
which  contain  the  black  slate  above  alluded  to  in  Formation 
8,  and  it  is  here  that  the  meteoric  water  is  first  impregnated 
and  afterwards  breaks  out,  after  traversing  the  channels  of 
the  lime  rock  for  some  distance,  in  one  of  the  anticlinal 
arches  at  the  springs.  The  principle  spring, 

"ANDERSON'S," 

Is  designated  a  "  Saline  chalybeate."  The  substances  which 
possess  the  active  qualities  which  have  given  character  to  the 
spring  are  the  sulphate  of  magnesia,  the  muriates  of  soda 
and  lime,  and  carbonates  of  iron  and  lime.  The  quantity 
of  carbonic  acid  gas  in  a  quart  of  the  water  is  stated  by 
Dr.  Church  to  be  eighteen  and  a  half  cubic  inches  (///) 
the  temperature  of  the  spring  being  55°  Fahr. :  somewhat 
higher  than  that  of  other  springs  in  the  neighborhood. 
Their  reputation  is,  that  they  possess  certain  powers  over 
diseases  of  the  stomach  and  bowels,  also  over  renal  affec- 
tions ;  and  in  chronic,  cutaneous,  gouty,  and  rheumatic  de- 
rangements, they  are  said  to  be  beneficial.  A  critical  ana- 
lysis by  Dr.  Church  gives  in  a  quart  of  the  water  thirty-one 


PENNSYLVANIA   MINERAL   SPRINGS.  129 

grains  of  residuum,  of  which  Epsom  salts  is  20  grains, 
the  balance  being  constituted  of  the  already  enumerated 
elements.* 

FLETCHER'S  SPRING 

Is  a  short  distance  from  Anderson's,  and  shows  more  iron 
and  common  salt,  with  less  magnesia,  but  in  other  respects 
like  the  last-named  spring.  Quite  a  range  of  morbid  states 
are  supposed  to  be  benefited  by  these  waters ;  especial  ad- 
vocates of  their  virtues  giving  lengthy  catalogues  of  the 
affections  over  which  they  exert  their  power,  commencing 
with  the  stomach  and  including  the  whole  range  of  the 
primes  viae,  with  offended  associated  organs ;  also  of  skin, 
with  "  secondary  diseases  of  lungs  originating  from  sym- 
pathy of  those  organs  with  the  stomach  and  liver,  over 
which  conditions  these  waters,  together  with  the  bracing 
vigor  of  the  mountain  air,  are  said  to  effect  most  happy 
changes. "  Sulphur  Spring  is  also  within  a  short  distance 
of  Anderson's.  It  is  said  to  contain  carbonic  acid  and  sul- 
phuretted hydrogen  gas,  lime,  magnesia,  and  common  salt. 

| 

SWEET  SPRING, 

Also  near  Anderson's,  is  pure  water,  containing  very  little 
mineral  substance  in  any  shape. 

Three  miles  from  Anderson's  and  one  and  a  half  from 
Bedford,  northeast,  there  is  a  chalybeate  spring.  This  is  a 
small  spring  exhaling  the  odor  of  sulphuretted  hydrogen, 
said  to  contain  carbonic  acid,  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  carbon- 
ate of  iron,  muriate  of  soda,  and  magnesia.  The  waters  of 
Bedford  have  long  enjoyed  a  deserved  celebrity.  The  place, 

*  The  analysis  of  Dr.  Chester  J.  Morris,  of  Philadelphia,  shows  a 
wide  discrepancy,  compared  with  this  old  analysis  of  Dr.  Church,  in 
quantity  of  chemical  contents,  in  the  proportion  of  the  substances,  and 
even  in  the  existence  of  some  items.  They  agree,  however,  on  the  pre- 
sence of  some  of  the  leading  elements  in  the  waters,  in  some  shape 
and  proportion. 


130  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

situated  in  a  pleasant  valley,  among  the  mountains  east  of 
the  Alleghany  range,  offers  elements  of  attraction  found  at 
few  summer  retreats. 

HUNTINGDON  SPRINGS. 

Five  miles  north  of  the  town  of  Huntingdon,  in  Hunting- 
don County,  are  some  springs  called  the  "Warm  Springs." 
They  have  been  a  place  of  resort  for  many  years.  Their 
exact  temperature,  whether  really  above  the  annual  mean  of 
the  place  or  their  chemical  contents,  have  not  yet  been  made 
the  subject  of  scientific  investigation.  The  waters  of  these 
springs  issue  from  the  base  of  a  monoclinal  axis  with  eastern 
dips  of  Formation  T,  which  here  forms  the  Warrior  Ridge, 
on  the  summit  of  which  are  isolated  shafts  or  needles  of 
this  formation,  left  by  denudation,  called  Pulpit  Rocks. 

FRANKFORT  MINERAL  SPRINGS 

Are  situated  in  Beaver  County,  near  the  village  of  Frank- 
fort. They  emerge  from  rocks  which  belong  to  the  car- 
bogaferous  group. 

CAVE  SPRING,  of  this  place,  contains  carbonic  acid,  car- 
bonate of  iron,  and  magnesia,  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  muri- 
ate of  soda,  and  a  minute  portion  of  bitumen.  This  is  the 
analysis  of  Dr.  Church.  LEIPER  SPRING,  near  the  above, 
contains  more  iron  and  soda,  less  magnesia,  and  about  the 
same  proportion  of  sulphuretted  hydrogen  and  carbonic  acid. 
These  waters  are  prescribed  in  a  variety  of  diseased  condi- 
tions :  dyspeptic  derangements  of  the  stomach,  rheumatism 
and  skin  diseases,  with  general  debility. 

There  is  a  chalybeate  spring  a  few  miles  from  Pittsburg. 
Dr.  Mead's  analysis  gives  muriate  of  soda,  muriate  of  mag- 
nesia, oxide  of  iron,  sulphate  of  iron,  sulphate  of  lime,  car- 
bonic acid  gas,  18  cubic  inches  to  the  quart  1 1 


PENNSYLVANIA   MINERAL   SPRINGS.  131 


FAYETTE  SPRINGS 

Are  in  Fayette  County,  near  the  National  Road's  crossing 
of  Laurel  Hill.  They  emerge  from  shales  and  sand- 
stones, belonging  to  the  carboniferous  group  a  short  dis- 
tance above  the  conglomerate.  Coal  and  iron  ore  abound 
in  the  neighborhood ;  the  water  is  a  pure,  strong  chalybeate, 
with  the  properties  and  virtues  of  iron  waters  generally. 

They  are  situated  in  the  second  bituminous  coal-basin  west 
of  the  Alleghany,  in  a  mountainous  region,  surrounded  by 
beautiful  scenery,  and  with  a  most  enchanting  atmosphere. 

BLOSSBURG  MINERAL  SPRINGS 

Are  in  Tioga  County,  at  the  town  named ;  and,  according 
to  Dr.  E.  Hartshorne,  the  waters  are  acid. 

Besides  the  excess  of  sulphuric  acid,  they  contain  sulphates 
of  iron  and  alumina,  with  sulphate  of  magnesia,  and  pos- 
sess the  properties  of  these  substances. 

BATH  CHALYBEATE  SPRINGS,  near  Bristol,  on  the  Delaware 
River,  were  noticed  as  early  as  1773,  by  Dr.  B.  Rush.  • 

The  Artesian  well  of  Petty's  Island,  opposite  northern 
Philadelphia,  is  a  chalybeate.  Booth's  analysis  "gives  bi- 
carbonate of  iron,  lime,  magnesia,  and  soda,  silica,  organized 
matter,  and  carbonic  acid." 

YORK  SPRINGS 

Are  in  Adams  County,  within  a  few  hours'  travel  of  a  num- 
ber of  large  towns.  One  of  the  springs  contains  sulphate  of 
magnesia,  sulphate  of  lime,  and  muriate  of  soda.  There  is 
also  here  an  iron  spring,  possessing  the  usual  properties  of 
those  springs. 

PERRY  COUNTY  SPRINGS. 

The  waters  of  these  springs  are  70°  F.,  and  said  to  be 
aperient  and  diuretic.  They  are  upon  Sherman's  Creek, 
eleven  miles  from  Carlisle. 


132  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

CARLISLE  SPRINGS. 

Near  this  town  there  is  a  sulphureous  spring.  There  are 
also  fine  common  springs  here. 

DOUBLING  GAP  SPRINGS 

Are  called  sulphureous  and  chalybeate.  They  are  situated 
in  Cumberland  County,  eight  miles  from  Newville.  They 
contain  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  carbonate  of  soda,  and  mag- 
nesia, Glauber  salts,  Epsom  and  common  salt.  The  chaly- 
beate shows  bicarbonate  of  iron  as  a  principal  ingredient, 
also  Epsom  salts,  common  salt,  and  carbonate  of  magnesia. 
Of  course  they  possess  the  medicinal  properties  of  elements 
contained. 

YELLOW  SPRINGS, 

In  Chester  County,  are  not  reputed  to  possess  any  medicinal 
properties,  but  are  very  pure,  and  the  place  attractive. 

EPHRATA  SPRINGS, 

In  Lancaster  County,  is  also  a  place  of  considerable  resort. 
Common  spring  water  is  supplied  in  every  way  to  visitors, 
and  the  place  extremely  attractive. 

CALEDONIA  SPRINGS 

Are  within  fifteen  miles  of  Chambersburg,  at  the  base  of 
South  Mountain.  The  delights  as  well  as  sanitary  advan- 
tages of  this  retreat  are  eloquently  advocated  by  Dr.  Bell, 
although  only  a  pure  water,  with  a  temperature  52°  F. 
The  springs  have  great  reputation  for  the  cure  of  divers 
grave  maladies.  Speaking  of  them,  Dr.  Bell  has  the  follow- 
ing observations: — " Without  meaning  to  undervalue  the 
efficacy  of  mineral  waters,  the  writer  can  recommend  in- 
valids, or  the  WEAK,  who  wish  to  become  stronger,  to  make 
the  regular  drinking  of  the  SINGULARLY  PURE  WATER  of  one 
of  the  springs  before  breakfast  and  before  dinner,  a  part  of 
the  pleasant  regimen  of  good  eating,  sound  sleeping,  and 
varied  exercise,  which  he  will  enjoy  at  this  favored  spot." 


PENNSYLVANIA   MINERAL   SPRINGS.  133 

Other  springs  of  the  world,  not  medicinal,  have  acquired 
the  same  reputation  "for  the  cure  of  a  large  number  of 
diseases."  Of  these  are  the  Malvern  springs,  in  England, 
alluded  to  by  Dr.  Bell  and  others.  The  Malvern,  acknow- 
ledged to  be  of  extreme  purity,  is  said  to  "SOMETIMES 
PURGE,"  and  be  serviceable  in  "chronic  cutaneous  diseases, 
used  externally  and  internally."  The  waters  of  Caledonia 
are  recommended  to  be  used  both  by  bath  and  internally. 

THE  ALLEGHANY  MOUNTAIN  SPRINGS 

Are  situated  near  the  summit  of  the  Alleghany,  in  Cambria 
County,  at  the  point  of  crossing  of  the  great  thoroughfare 
of  the  State,  the  road  of  the  Central  Rail-Road  Company, 
Cresson  Station,  near  the  contemplated  mountain  village  of 
Rhododendron.  These  springs  are  more  than  two  thousand 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  surrounded  by  original  forests, 
amidst  the  range  of  vertebral  knobs  or  spinous  processes  con- 
stituting the  highest  line  of  water  shedding,  and  the  true 
summit  of  the  great  Appalachian  chain.  There  are  here  a 
number  of  springs,  which  rise  and  flow  from  a  small  moun- 
tain vale  scooped  out  of  the  western  side  of  the  crest  of  the 
Alleghany.  At  this  elevated  spot  the  tributaries  of  two 
large  rivers  have  their  origin ;  some  of  the  rivulets  flowing 
east  into  the  Atlantic  through  the  channel  of  the  Susque- 
hanna  and  Chesapeake  Bay,  while  others  flow  west  through 
the  Conemaugh  and  Mississippi  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
The  springs  of  this  new  watering-place  exhibit  the  general 
character  of  the  waters  of  the  Alleghany  Mountain  heights. 
The  greatest  point  of  interest  and  attraction,  the  truly  in- 
valuable quality  of  a  number  of  these  springs,  is  their  almost 
absolute  purity.  The  geological  position  of  the  place,  or 
the  rock  formations  from  which  they  flow,  as  already  ex- 
plained, is  among  the  silicious  and  argillaceous  masses  in 
the  lower  barren  part  of  the  bituminous  coal  series.  Those 
which  flow  exclusively  through  sand  masses  and  slate,  are 
of  course  almost  free  from  the  presence  of  all  earthy  sub- 
stances, as  these  rocks  are  but  slightly  soluble  in  cold  water. 

12 


134  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

It  occurs  then,  that  by  these  vast  and  perfect  niters  of 
nature,  all  surface-washings  of  vegetable  and  other  sub- 
stances are  effectually  arrested  in  the  process  of  percolation. 
The  greater  number  of  the  springs  at  this  place- are  of  this 
character,  some  being  so  pure  that  chemical  tests  show  only 
traces  of  any  mineral  substances  whatever,  or  water  as 
nearly  absolute  as  possible.  There  are,  however,  some 
of  the  springs  which  are  highly  charged  with  chemical 
elements;  these  come  from  the  calcareous  layers  and  py- 
ritous  shales  associated  with  the  lower  group  of  coal- 
seams.  Some  of  these  are  gently  aperient,  more  of  them 
tonic,  from  the  intermingling  of  the  salts  which  possess 
those  powers.  The  true  mineral  waters  of  this  place, 
which  excel  all  others,  are  the  chalybeates.  This  class 
of  waters  is  found,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  greatest  perfec- 
tion in  the  coal  series. 

Of  the  individual  springs  which  have  received  attention 
at  this  new  establishment,  chartered  by  the  Legislature  of 
Pennsylvania,  in  the  name  of  the  Alleghany  Mountain 
Health  Institute,  a  few  may  be  selected  as  the  subject  of 
special  notice. 

RHODODENDRON  SPRING. 

This  is  a  large,  pure  water  spring,  emerging  in  a  con- 
siderable volume  from  a  group  of  crushed  strata,  which  is 
formed  almost  exclusively  of  silicious  elements  or  sand.  It 
is  the  drain  of  an  extensive  bench  of  this  rock,  and  the 
spring  is  perhaps  1000  feet  northeast  of  the  large  hotel. 
The  volume  of  water  is  never  changed  much  during  the 
dryest  season,  and  retains  a  mean  temperature  of  43°  F. 
The  water  of  this  spring  is  limpid  and  sweet,  and  as  near 
water  in  purity,  or  distilled  water,  as  can  occur  naturally. 
It  is  used  for  all  domestic  purposes,  and  its  extremely  low 
temperature  makes  it  a  perfect  luxury  at  the  hottest  seasons, 
without  ice.  This  spring  is  invaluable  as  an  absolute  or 
nearly  perfectly  pure  water. 


PENNSYLVANIA   MINERAL    SPRINGS.  135 

A  few  hundred  yards  north  of  this  spring  there  is  a 
group  called  the 

"HEMLOCK  SPRINGS." 

These  springs  emerge  from  slate  strata,  and  contain  some 
iron,  with  carbonate  of  lime.  They  have  a  temperature  of 
45°  Fahr.,  and  are  situated  in  a  dense  forest  of  hemlock- 
trees. 

"  CAKATION  SPRING" 

Is  five  or  six  hundred  yards  east  of  "Hemlock  Springs."  It 
is  higher  up  in  the  geological  series,  emerging  from  slate, 
and  sandstone  interlayers,  does  not  contain  appreciable 
quantities  of  any  earthy  salts,  being  a  water  of  exceeding 
purity. 

West  of  Rhododendron  Spring,  perhaps  one  hundred 
rods,  is  QUEMAHONING  SPRING,  the  water  containing,  ac- 
cording to  Booth,  Garrett,  and  Camac,  a  trace  of  sulphate 
of  lime  and  magnesia.  It  is  nearly  a  pure  water,  emerging 
from  a  group  of  slate  rocks  and  sandstones. 

"MEADOW  SPRING" 

Is  still  farther  west  than  Quemahoning,  and  possesses  the 
same  general  character,  according  to  the  tests  of  the  labo- 
ratory. 

"  DISCORD  SPRING" 

Emerges  from  a  mass  of  slate  and  shale,  containing  traces 
of  salts  of  lime,  and  iron. 

"BRANDY  SPRING." 

This  spring  derives  its  name  from  the  generous  flow  of  that 
beverage  which  occurred  at  the  time  of  its  discovery.  It  is  a 
pure  freestone  water  at  the  temperatute  of  45°  Fahr.,  and, 
according  to  Booth,  Garrett,  and  Camac,  contains  only 
the  smallest  appreciable  traces  of  lime  and  magnesia.  It  is 
a  few  hundred  yards  south  of  the  Mountain  House,  supply- 
ing that  house  and  its  baths  with  water,  and,  according  to 


136  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

the  above  chemists,  who  tested  it,  "may  be  termed  a  water 
of  great  purity." 

Of  the  class  of  proper  chalybeate  waters  there  are  seve- 
ral springs  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  hotels,  coming  from 
slates  and  shales  lower  down  in  the  series,  the  most  distin- 
guished of  which  is 

"IGNATIUS'  SPRING." 

This  is  a  strong  iron  water,  depositing,  as  it  flows,  quanti- 
ties of  ochery  precipitates  of  hydrated  peroxide  of  iron,  from 
escape  of  the  carbonic  acid  gas.  It  has  been  named  after 
the  venerable  huntsman  (Ignatius  Adams)  who  first  dis- 
covered its  life-preserving  powers,  and  gave  to  the  world, 
in  his  own  person,  a  revelation  of  the  secret  of  its  true 
medicinal  properties.  By  drinking  this  water,  dwelling 
in  the  woods,  and  eating  venison,  he  has  lived  to  near 
the  good  old  age  of  one  hundred  years.  It  seemed  but  a 
just  tribute  to  his  worth  to  give  his  name  to  the  spring.  It 
has,  however,  always  been  called  the  "  SULPHUR  SPRING," 
although  chemical  analysis  has  given  the  presence  of  no  sul- 
phuretted hydrogen  gas  in  its  waters.  It  was  supposed  to 
be  sulphureous  from  its  depositing  the  bright-yellow  ochery 
oxide  of  iron,  imagined  to  be  sulphur,  and  also  from  a  tra- 
dition connected  with  Ignatius,  as  one  of  the  intrepid  Nim- 
rods  of  the  Alleghany  Mountain,  and  his  well-known  love 
for,  and  faith  in  gun-powder.  The  tradition  of  the  origin 
of  its  sulphureous  character  has  never  been  considered  an 
idle  tale,  as  it  was  generally  believed  by  the  natives  that 
"  Old  Ig.,"  as  he  is  sometimes  profanely  called  by  the  boys, 
had,  on  some  occasion  of  glory,  spilled  the  contents  of  his 
powder-horn  into  the  spring,  and  that  it  has  tasted  of  gun- 
powder and  been  depositing  sulphur  ever  since.  If  they  had 
substituted  INK-HORN  for  powder-horn,  the  association  of  its 
sensible  properties  with  the  tradition  of  their  origin  would 
have  been  very  close  to  the  fact  as  it  now  exists,  possessing, 
as  it  does,  the  actual  taste  of  ink,  but  it  would  not  have 
fitted  so  appropriately  the  character  of  the  old  huntsman. 


PENNSYLVANIA   MINERAL    SPRINGS.  137 

The  analysis  made  in  the  laboratory  of  Booth,  Garrett, 
and  Camac,  of  Philadelphia,  shows  the  presence  of  iron, 
lime,  magnesia,  carbonic  and  sulphuric  acid.  In  their  re- 
port of  the  examination  of  this  water  they  say,  "  One  gallon 
contains  144  grains  of  mineral  matter,  consisting  of  sul- 
phate of  iron,  sulphate  of  lime,  carbonate  of  iron,  and  sul- 
phate of  magnesia.  It  is,  therefore,  a  CHALYBEATE  or  iron 
spring  of  GOOD  QUALITY,  and  will  exhibit  decided  medicinal 
properties  when  employed  fresh  from  the  spring." 

This  water  has  fixed  a  well-established  character  in  a 
range  of  cures  of  maladies  requiring  tone  and  exaltation  of 
the  life  of  tissues  and  organs.  Its  virtues  have  long  been 
appreciated  and  appropriated  by  the  inhabitants  of  the 
neighborhood  and  strangers  who  have  visited  the  mountain 
springs. 

This  spring  is  one  half-mile  south  of  the  "Mountain 
House,"  the  principle  hotel  of  the  Sanitarium  or  Health  In- 
stitute Association.  It  arises  from  the  earth  near  one  of 
the  lower  group  of  coal-seams,  and  deposits  its  yellow 
sediment  from  precipitation  of  iron  for  some  distance  as  it 
flows  over  the  surface.  The  walk  to  this  spring  is  through 
a  forest  of  ancient  hemlock,  birch,  and  chestnut  trees,  woods 
called  primeval,  from  whose  cool,  sequestered  shades  the 
weary  invalid  can  absorb  life  and  strength  as  he  wanders  to 
the  charmed  fountain  of  "Ignatius." 

There  are  other  springs  in  this  interesting  locality ;  they 
will,  however,  fall  into  the  classes  described  under  the  head 
of  the  general  notice  of  the  waters  of  the  mountain. 

There  are  many  mineral  springs  in  Pennsylvania  but  little 
known  to  the  public,  which  it  is  hoped  will  soon  be  analyzed, 
and  recorded  in  the  list  of  regular  medicated  waters  of  the 
State.  Pre-eminent  in  valuable  minerals  in  the  solid  state, 
shall  she  not  also  be  pre-eminent  in  the  fluid,  or  springs  of 
minerals  possessing  medicinal  properties  ? 

BRANDY  WINE  SPRINGS,  in  Delaware,  are  a  few  miles  from 
Wilmington.  They  belong  to  the  class  of  chalybeates. 

12* 


138  THE   MOUNTAIN. 


MAINE  SPRINGS. 

PASSING  in  rapid  review  the  mineral  springs  of  the  con- 
tinent, those  only  which  have  been  most  frequently  described, 
and  whose  contents  have  been  the  subject  of  more  or  less 
chemical  investigation,  will  be  catalogued ;  and  first  those  of 
the  United  States  will  be  noticed,  commencing  at  the  north- 
east and  pursuing,  to  a  certain  extent,  the  obvious  geographic 
range,  followed  by  Dr.  Bell,  in  the  work  already  alluded  to, 
and  from  which  frequent  quotations  will  be  made  in  this 
synopsis. 

MINERAL  SPRINGS  OP  MAINE. 

In  the  first  report  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  Maine,  Dr. 
C.  T.  Jackson  gives  an  account  of  "  LUBECK  SALINE 
SPRING:"  water  colorless;  specific  gravity  1*025 ;  analysis 
of  100  grains  of  dried  salt  gives,  in  a  pint  of  water, — 

Chloride  of  sodium,  64'1  grs. 

Sulphate  of  lime,  3 '6    " 

Chloride  of  magnesium,  20 '2    " 

Sulphate  of  soda,  9'0    " 

Carbonate  of  iron,  0-8    " 

Carbonate  of  lime,  2'0    " 

Chloride  of  calcium,  trace. 

Carbonic  acid  gas,  

At  Dexter  there  is  a  chalybeate  spring,  described  as  an 
excellent  iron  water,  by  Dr.  Jackson.  It  is  said  to  be  a 
good  tonic  in  digestive  disorders. 


SPRINGS   OF   VERMONT.  139 


SPRINGS  OF  VERMONT. 

IN  this  State  there  are  sulphureous  springs  within  a  few 
miles  of  St.  Alban's  Bay,  called  "HIGHGATE  SPRINGS."  East 
of  Montpelier  is  the  "NEWBURG  SULPHUREOUS  SPRING." 
The  water  of  this  spring  is  impregnated  with  sulphuretted 
hydrogen  gas. 

ALBURGH  SPRINGS  are  of  the  same  character. 

Professor  Hitchcock  describes  a  spring  called  the  "  BEN- 
NINGTON  THERMAL  SPRING,"  containing  nitrogen  and  oxy- 
gen gases  (/  /  /) 

"CLARENDON  GASEOUS  SPRINGS"  give  slightly  acidulous 
waters.  Dr.  Hayes's  analysis  shows  the  presence  of  nitrogen, 
carbonic  acid,  and  atmospheric  air. 


MASSACHUSETTS  MINERAL  WATERS. 

OF  these  waters  not  much  has  yet  reached  the  world  at  large. 
This  is  the  more  surprising,  as  the  progressive  Yankee  State 
is  given  to  finding  things  out;  but  on  this  subject  we  have 
very  little,  even  under  the  overshadowing  formula  of  the  in- 
finite GUESS,  of  that  peculiarly  sharp  and  wide-awake  people. 
As  recorded,  it  stands  thus :  BERKSHIRE  SODA  SPRINGS 
are  acidulous,  containing  carbonic  acid,  soda,  chlorine,  and 
alumina.  Location  near  Great  Barrington,  Berkshire  County, 
—said  to  be  in  a  region  attractive  »for  more  than  its  water 
and  air. 


140  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

HOPKINTON  SPRINGS  show,  from  Dr.  Gorham's  analysis, 
carbonates  of  lime,  magnesia,  and  iron  ;  and  another  spring 
gives  the  presence  of  sulphur  in  its  waters. 

Notwithstanding  the  suggestions  of  Professor  Mather,  that 
geological  investigations  would  reveal  in  certain  lines  of  dis- 
turbances and  fracturing,  or  upheaval  of  strata,  northeast  of 
New  York,  mineral  springs  similar  to  those  in  that  State, 
there  have,  as  yet,  however,  been  made  no  discoveries  of 
such  springs,  either  in  Yermont,  New  Hampshire,  or  Massa- 
chusetts. This  is  all  the  more  astonishing,  bearing  in  mind 
the  present  received  doctrines  of  geologists  on  continuity  of 
original  formations. 


MINERAL   SPRINGS   OF  NEW  YORK.  141 


MINERAL  SPRINGS  OF  NEW  YORK. 

THAT  same  "  Empire  State,"  ambitious  to  be  EMPIRE  IN  ALL 
THINGS,  has  certainly  distinguished  herself  by  her  attention 
to  her  mineral  springs,  and  by  the  invitation  she  has  so  long 
extended  to  the  world  to  appreciate  and  enjoy  the  same. 
She  is  plentifully  supplied  with  different  kinds  of  mineral 
waters.  Some  of  the  mineral  springs  of  New  York  are  more 
celebrated  than  any  others  in  the  United  States,  and  rival 
the  far-famed  springs  of  Europe.  They  are  considered  to 
possess  more  medicinal  properties,  and  more  rare  and  distin- 
guished endowments  in  the  sphere  of  sanitary  attractions, 
than  any  other  springs  in  this  country.  The  names  of  SARA- 
TOGA and  BALLSTON  alone  suggest  not  only  the  memory  of 
gunpowder,  or  sulphur,  and  victory,  but  of  health,  fashion, 
and  splendor. 

The  mineral  springs  of  New  York  belong,  as  the  list  will 
show,  to  a  number,  or  indeed  all  of  the  classes  of  waters, 
namely,  carbonated,  saline,  sulphureous,  and  chalybeate. 
The  geological  position  of  the  gaseous  springs,  the  most 
celebrated  of  which  are  the  Saratoga  and  Ballston  range, 
according  to  Professor  Mather,  is  in  the  transition  of  the 
Trenton  limestone  and  superimposed  slate,  or  Formations  2 
and  3  of  Pennsylvania.  He  also  suggests,  that  the  "  source 
of  the  mineral  qualities  may  be  deeper  than  the  junction  of 
the  Trenton  limestone  and  slate,  and  even  as  far  down  in  the 
series  as  the  Calciferous  Sandstone."  (No.  1  of  Pennsylvania.) 

The  waters  of  the  Saratoga  group  are  carbonated  saline. 
This  class  of  waters  is  very  numerous  in  a  certain  part  of  the 
State,  restricted,  it  is  alleged,  however,  by  the  geologists  of 
N  ew  York,  to  a  particular  line  of  disturbance  and  faults  of 
the  geological  formations,  all  of  which  possess  the  same 
general  character  of  water,  or  at  least  a  strong  resemblance. 
The  springs  at  Saratoga  form  the  centre  of  this  range. 


142  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

They  have  here  a  larger  chain  of  distinctive  features,  and 
more  clearly  pronounced  qualities,  although  the  other  springs 
possess  the  same  chemical  elements,  differing  only  in  quantity 
and  proportion.  A  critical  estimate  of  the  whole  range 
would  show  identity  of  character.  Certain  springs  have, 
however,  by  common  consent,  been  distinguished  for  superior 
qualities,  and  the  Saratoga  group  is  of  that  number.  Of 
the  origin  of  these  waters,  various  geological  theories  have 
been  suggested  that  scarcely  concern  us  here,  although  the 
problem  is  intensely  interesting  to  geologists,  and  one  of 
paramount  value  in  the  final  rendering  of  the  natural 
history  of  these  objects.  The  minute  geology  of  the 
localities  and  surroundings  decides  the  whole  question;  the 
waters,  even  of  deep  and  thermal  origin,  deriving  their 
mineral  elements  from  the  rock  structures  below  the  surface, 
and  through  which  they  flow.  The  reports  of  the  Saratoga 
and  Ballston  springs  exhibit  almost  perfect  identity  of  chemi- 
cal composition,  and  the  superiority  of  the  former,  especially 
of  the  celebrated  "  CONGRESS  SPRING,"  is  only  based  upon  an 
accidental  character,  or  notoriety,  whose  shade  of  color  is 
extremely  questionable. 

Of  "  Congress  Spring,"  the  analysis  of  Dana  (Dr.  Steel's 
being  nearly  the  same)  gives  the  following  substances  in  a 
pint  of  the  water  : — 

DANA.  STEEL. 

Chloride  of  sodium,  54-30  grs.  

Hydriodate  of  soda,  0'44 

Carbonate  of  soda,  2 '00  

Bicarbonate  of  soda,  1-12 

Carbonate  of  magnesia,  4*00  

Bicarbonate  of  magnesia,  ll'9t 

Carbonate  of  lime,  18 '00 

Carbonate  of  iron,  0'68 

Silica,  trace,  with  iron,   . 

Hydrobromate  of  potassa,         trace,  

They  also  contain  carbonic  acid  gas,  nitrogen,  and  atmo- 
spheric air.  Temperature,  50,  Steel;  51,  Daubeny. 


MINERAL    SPRINGS    OF    NEW   YORK.  143 

The  PAVILION  SPRING  exceeds  it  in  carbonic  acid. 

UNION  SPRING  shows  greater  quantity  of  saline  elements, 
and  carbonic  acid  less  than  in  the  last  spring. 

The  PUTNAM  SPRING  is  said,  by  Dr.  Bell,  to  be  among 
the  richest  of  the  Saratoga  springs  in  iron,  but  nearly  the 
same  as  the  rest  in  other  elements. 

WALTON  or  IODINE  SPRING  contains  hydriodate  of  soda, 
three  grains  to  a  gallon.  Temperature,  47°  F. 

A  number  of  other  springs,  HIGH  ROCK,  FLAT  ROCK, 
WASHINGTON,  and  COLUMBIAN,  are  like  those  already  enu- 
merated, with  the  addition  of  iron.  HIGH  ROCK  was  the 
first  spring  discovered,  according  to  Dr.  Steel,  and  a  sprink- 
ling of  Indian  tradition  mingles  with  its  history,  which 
extends  back  nearly  ninety  years. 

There  are  also  other  springs  enumerated  as  medicinal,  as 
HAMILTON,  JACKSON,  ALEXANDER,  RED,  and  SULPHUR 
SPRINGS,  with  temperatures  from  4T  to  51°  F.  Dr.  Bell 
asserts  that  "all  the  mineral  springs  of  the  valley  may  be 
considered  as,  to  a  certain  extent,  thermal." 

BALLSTON  SPRINGS  are  seven  miles  from  Saratoga,  and 
have  been  used  since  118T.  The  springs  are  the  FRANKLIN 
SULPHUR,  FULTON  CHALYBEATE,  UNITED  STATES,  PARK, 
and  Low's  WELL.  The  water  of  the  UNITED  STATES,  ac- 
cording to  Dr.  Beck's  analysis,  contains  in  the  pint, 

Chloride  of  sodium,  53-12  grs. 

Carbonate  of  soda,  2'11    " 
Carbonate  of  lime,  with  iron,          3 '65    " 

Carbonate  of  magnesia,  0'T2    " 

Sulphate  of  soda,  0'22    " 

Silica,  1-00    " 

Carbonic  acid,  30 '50  cubic  inch. 

They  contain  less  salt  and  gas  than  Saratoga.  Some  of 
the  other  springs  contain  iron  in  addition  to  the  saline  ele- 
ments. 

The  Ballston  and  Saratoga  waters  have  long  been  in  use, 


144  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

and  have  been  the  subject  of  great  experimentation ;  also, 
the  objects  of  a  great  amount  of  fabulous  exaggeration; 
also  worthy  of  attention  as  possessing  positive  merit  as  heal- 
ing agents.  In  certain  diseases,  the  profession -is  satisfied 
that  their  virtue  is  real,  and  their  effects  undoubted.  The 
catalogue  of  their  fancied  and  absolute  healings  would  be  a 
nosological  table  of  almost  the  whole  range  of  human  infirmi- 
ties. The  real  powers  of  these  waters  are  those  usually  as- 
cribed to  all  saline  and  aperient  waters.  A  discriminating 
survey  shows  their  chief  force  to  be  in  their  effects  upon  the 
organs  contained  in  the  cavity  of  the  abdomen.  This  em- 
braces the  stomach,  liver,  small  and  large  intestines,  kidneys, 
etc.,  a  large  number  of  whose  functional,  and  even  organic 
derangements,  are  said  to  be  curable  by  these  waters.  The 
special  advocates  of  their  powers  give  extensive  tables  of 
diseases  within  their  control.  Omitting  what  is  obviously 
false  and  fraudulent  in  these  statements  and  suggestions,  a 
critical  reading  of  the  testimony  in  favor  of  their  powers, 
points  out  the  great  abdominal  region,  with  enclosed  viscera, 
as  the  special  theatre  of  their  action,  and  its  extensive  class 
of  diseases  as  the  legitimate  subjects  of  trial  with  them. 

As  these  derangements  are  the  horrors  that  hang,  like 
the  sword  of  Damocles,  or  the  skull  at  the  Egyptian  ban- 
quet, over  the  classes  of  society  diseased  by  luxurious  indul- 
gences, that  division  of  the  human  family  to  whom  it  has 
become  fabulous  and  absurd  that  the  chief  end  of  man  is 
self-sacrifice  and  crucifixion  of  the  flesh,  but  that  the  more 
tangibly  good  ends,  the  stuffing  the  human  bread-basket, 
and  having  a  good  time  generally,  are  demonstrably  sound 
as  a  religious  creed  and  system  of  salvation  ;  it  would  follow, 
that  any  waters  that  have  a  tendency  to  swab  out  or  deterge 
the  great  sacks  and  sewers  of  the  body  would  be  beneficial. 
It  being  the  law,  that  swift  and  sure  upon  the  heels  of  the 
indulgence  comes  the  expiatory  suffering,  it  would  occur, 
even  to  the  unthinking,  that  a  clear  navigation  being  effected 
in  the  tortuous  canal  of  membranes  that  undoubtedly  occu- 
pies the  interior  of  the  human  body,  (however  beautiful  and 


MINERAL  SPRINGS  OF  NEW  YORK.       145 

angelic  the  expression  of  the  outer  husk  may  be,)  by  the 
purgative  action  of  the  Saratoga  waters  upon  said  intes- 
tines of  the  fashionable  world  that  resort  to  its  famed  foun- 
tains, would  be  followed  by  the  most  brilliant  results.*  We 
accordingly  find  that  it  is  thus  that  this  great  assimilative 
cavity,  with  its  contained  organs,  are  impressed;  also,  the 
long  complicated  chains  of  sympathetic  connections  with 
other  parts  of  the  system  modified  and  rearranged  health- 
fully,— Epsom  salts  and  common  salt  being  the  great  sani- 
tary forces.  Much  is  said  of  the  alterative  properties  of 
these  waters,  as  great  reorganizers  upon  all  the  tissues  and 
organs,  by  the  use  of  those  said  to  contain  iodine  and  iron, 
in  connection  with  those  containing  salts  and  gases.  In  all 
this  catalogue  of  distinguished  achievements  of  Congress 
and  other  waters,  it  might  be  desirable  to  know  just  the 
influence  of  certain  excursions  to  Saratoga  Lake,  Long 
Lake,  and  Lake  George,  together  with  fishing  excursions, 
and  exercise  of  all  kinds,  assisted  by  the  "  balsamic  and 
turpentine  qualities  of  the  airt  impregnated  with  the  pine 
and  other  forest-trees,"  in  the  assistance  and  furtherance 
of  the  action  of  said  waters. 

There  are  still  other  acidulous  waters,  varying  slightly  in 

*  On  this  subject,  as  involving  literary  and  scientific  issues  in  the 
great  problem  of  the  incarnation  of  the  soul,  it  may  be  remarked  that 
the  effects  of  castor- oil  upon  the  intellect  and  moral  sentiments  have 
long  been  known,  at  least  to  medical  philosophers.  How  much  of 
the  heavens,  in  certain  directions,  could  have  been  cleared  up  by  the 
judicious  application  of  vegetable  or  saline  cathartics — how  much  of 
the  atra-bilious  tint  bleached  out  of  the  theologies  by  blue-mass  and 
Seidlitz  powders;  and  how  many  of  the  gases,  of  the  offensive  and 
poisonous  order,  at  least,  could  have  been  kept  from  penetrating  the 
philosophies,  by  the  chewing  of  rhubarb  or  aloes,  and  securing  the 
perfectly  regulated  function  of  the  large  intestine. 

This  is  a  ghastly  realm  of  human  thought,  carrying  the  mind  into 
fearful  abysses  of  speculation ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  immensely  rich 
in  its  resources,  startling  in  its  suggestions,  and  portentous  in  its  reve- 
lations and  demonstrations,  especially  in  the  departments  of  Theo- 
logy, Metaphysics,  and  Poetry. 

13 


146  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

the  proportion  of  their  chemical  elements.  Of  these  are  the 
Albany  Artesian  Mineral  Wells ;  also  Reed's  Mineral  Spring, 
in  South  Argyle,  and  Halleck's,  in  Oneida  County,  near 
Hampton. 

Of  chalybeate  waters,  New  York  claims  also  to  possess 
a  number  of  springs  ;  of  these  are  Sandlake  Tillage  Spring, 
in  Rensselaer  County,  and  others  in  Columbia,  Dutchess,  and 
Delaware  counties. 

Of  the  class  of  sulphureous  waters  New  York  has  a  large 
supply,  as,  according  to  Dr.  Bell,  "  There  is  scarcely  a  single 
county  in  the  State  in  which  the  springs  of  this  class,  im- 
pregnated with  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  are  not  found  ;"  and 
the  geologists  report  a  large  number  in  some  of  the  districts. 
Though  widely  separated,  they  have  one  common  character 
with  regard  to  temperature  and  mineral  composition  which 
would  seem  to  point  to  a  common  geological  origin.  Be- 
sides sulphuretted  hydrogen,  these  waters  contain  carbonic 
acid,  carbonate  and  sulphate  of  lime,  and  some  of  them  car- 
buretted  hydrogen. 

SHARON  and  AVON  are  the  most  celebrated  sulphur 
springs  in  New  York. 

SHARON  SPRINGS  are  near  Leesville,  Schoharie  County. 
They  are  called  the  "  White  Sulphur,"  and  "Magnesian ;"  they 
come,  according  to  Dr.  Beck,  "  from  the  pyritous  slates  be- 
neath the  Helderburg  limestone  series."  Dr.  Chilton  reports 
White  Sulphur  to  contain,  in  a  pint  of  water, — 

Sulphate  of  magnesia,  2 '65  grs. 

Sulphate  of  lime,  6 '68    " 

Chloride  of  sodium,  0*14    " 

Chloride  of  magnesium,  0*15    " 

Hydro-sulphuret  of  sodium  and  calcium,  each  0'14    " 
With  one  cubic  inch  of  sulphuretted  hydrogen  gas. 

Drs.  Beck  and  North  differ  in  this  analysis. 

MAGNESIAN  SPRING  has  a  slightly  different  composition, 
containing,  like  the  other,  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  according 
to  the  analysis  of  Professor  Reed,  of  New  York. 


MINERAL    SPRINGS    OF   NEW   YORK.  147 

The  AVON  SPRINGS  are  near  the  town  of  Avon,  eastern 
branch  of  Genesee  River,  in  Livingston  County.  These 
springs  have  been  used  for  more  than  half  a  century ;  they 
differ  but  slightly  in  chemical  composition,  and  their  general 
temperature  is  about  50°  to  51°  Fahr. 

The  Avon  New  Spring  contains,  in  a  pint, — 

Carbonate  of  lime,  3 '37  grs. 

Sulphate  of  lime,  0'44    " 

Magnesia,  1-01    " 

Soda,  4-84    " 

Chloride  of  sodium,  O'U    " 

Sulphuretted  hydrogen,  3 '90  cubic  inches. 

Another  spring,  according  to  Professor  Hadley,  contains, 
in  a  pint, — 

Sulphuretted  hydrogen,  12 '00  inches. 

Carbonic  acid,  5 '00  cubic  inches. 
Carbonate  of  lime,  I'OO  gr. 

Sulphate  of  lime,  10 '00  grs. 
Sulphate  of  magnesia,  1'25    " 

Sulphate  of  soda,  2 -00    " 
Chloride  of  sodium,  2'30    " 

The  third  spring  is  said  to  be  richer  in  salts  than  the  last 
noticed. 

The  IODINE  or  SILVAN  SPRINGS,  according  to  the  ana- 
lysis of  Dr.  Chilton,  contain  an  appreciable  quantity  of 
iodine,  with  other  of  the  more  ordinary  combinations  of 
saline  elements. 

Of  the  special  virtues  of  the  Avon  and  Sharon  waters 
much  has  been  said,  both  in  separate  treatises  and  also  in 
works  of  a  more  general  character.  Their  therapeutic  quali- 
ties are  those  of  sulphur  waters  generally.  They  are  sup- 
posed to  exert  their  force  emphatically  upon  chronic  dis- 
eases of  the  skin,  mucous  membranes,  and  rheumatism. 
Their  claims  are  well  set  forth  by  Sallisbury,  Francis,  Bell, 
and  others,  whose  detailed  accounts  of  the  waters  used  both 


148  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

internally  and  externally,  qualities,  modus  operandi,  etc.,  are 
certainly  worthy  of  the  greatest  respect  and  most  attentive 
consideration  of  all  invalids  and  physicians  who  are  de- 
sirous of  being  posted  in  the  resources  of  their  art.  There 
are  other  sulphur  springs  in  New  York  of  considerable 
celebrity. 

CLIFTON  SPRING,  in  Ontario  County,  is  said  to  be  "  so  im- 
pregnated with  gas  that  the  odor  is  perceptible  for  one- 
fourth  of  a  mile."  Temperature,  51°  Fahr. 

CHITTENANGO  SPRINGS  are  in  Madison  County ;  they  con- 
tain carbonate  and  sulphate  of  lime,  sulphate  of  magnesia 
and  chloride  of  sodium,  sulphuretted  hydrogen  and  carbonic 
acid  gas ;  temperature,  49°  Fahr.  One  of  the  springs  also 
contains  sulphate  of  soda.  Dr.  Beck  speaks  highly  of  these 
springs. 

MANLIUS  LAKE  and  SPRING,  in  Onondaga  County,  are 
charged  with  sulphuretted  hydrogen. 

The  SALINE  SPRINGS,  of  Salina  and  Syracuse,  are  also 
charged  with  sulphuretted  hydrogen. 

MESSINA  SPRING  also  contains  sulphur. 

Near  Auburn,  in  Cayuga  County,  there  are  springs  called 
"  AUBURN  SPRINGS."  From  Chilton's  analysis  they  contain, 
in  a  pint, — 

Sulphate  of  lime,  15*00  grs. 

Sulphate  of  magnesia,  3 '20    " 

Chloride  of  magnesium,  0'25    " 

Chloride  of  sodium,  0'75    " 

Sulphuretted  hydrogen,  1'05  cubic  inches. 

ROCHESTER  SPRING  contains,  in  a  pint, — 

Carbonate  of  lime  and  magnesia,  1-48  grs. 

Chloride  of  sodium,  6'52    " 

Sulphate  of  soda,  6 -97    " 
Sulphuretted  hydrogen  and  carbonic 

acid,  2*16  cubic  inches. 
Temperature,  52°  Fahr. 


MINERAL  SPRINGS  OF  NEW  YORK.       149 

There  are  a  number  of  springs  of  the  same  character 
in  Monroe  County,  whose  waters  have  reputation  as 
mineral. 

VERONA  SPRING,  in  Oneida  County,  according  to  Pro- 
fessor Noyes,  contains,  in  a  pint, — 

Chloride  of  lime  and  magnesia,  8-50  grs. 

Chloride  of  sodium,  90 '00    " 
Sulphate  of  lime,  T50    " 

Sulphuretted  hydrogen  in  large  quantities. 

SAQUOIT  SPRINGS,  a  few  miles  from  TJtica,  are  represented 
to  be  highly  charged  with  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  also  car- 
buretted  hydrogen,  and  chloride  of  sodium  and  magnesium, 
with  sulphate  of  lime  and  iron. 

Niagara  County  contains  a  number  of  sulphur  springs,  as 
in  the  vicinity  of  Lewistown  and  Pendleton. 

SENECA  SPRINGS  contain  quantities  of  gas,  also  saline 
substances. 

Northern  New  York  has  sulphur  springs  in  the  counties  of 
Clinton  and  St.  Lawrence. 

The  valley  of  the  Hudson  contains,  in  the  space  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles,  a  number  of  sulphur  springs.  There 
are,  in  other  portions  of  the  State,  springs  of  this  class,  as 
HARROWGATE  SPRINGS,  in  Rensselaer  County,  NEWBURG,  in 
Orange  County,  CATSKILL,  in  Green  County,  also  in  Dutchess 
County,  and  NANTICOKE,  in  Broome  County,  and  DRYDEN 
SPRINGS,  in  Tompkins  County.  There  are  sulphur  springs 
in  Chenango,  Tioga,  Stephen,  and  Cattaraugus  counties. 
There  are  found  in  Chatauqua  County  a  number  of  sulphur 
springs  which  evolve  carburetted  hydrogen. 

There  is  still  another  class  of  springs  in  New  York,  viz. 
acid  springs.  They  contain  sulphuric  acid  in  excess,  with 
sulphate  of  alumina  or  alum,  and  sulphate  of  iron.  At 
Byron,  G-enesee  County,  two  of  these  springs  are  found, 
according  to  Dr.  Beck,  "containing  nearly  pure  sulphuric 

13* 


150  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

acid,  and  not  a  solution  of  acid  salts."     Other  acid  springs 
are  found  in  this  county. 

Near  the  village  of  Medina,  in  Genesee  County,  are  the 
"OAKORCHARD  ACID  SPRINGS."  Analyses  by  Chilton  and 
Emmons  give  the  presence  of  saline  materials  with  the  acid. 
Chilton's  analysis  gives  free  sulphuric  acid  in  the  proportions 
of  82 -96  grs.  to  the  gallon;  also, 

Sulphate  of  lime,  38-60  grs. 

Alumina,  9'68    " 

Magnesia,  8 '28    " 

Protosulphate  of  iron,  14 '32    " 

Emmons  gives  free  sulphuric  acid,  to  the  pint,  31 '50  grs. ; 
also,  sulphate  of  iron,  lime,  and  magnesia.  Other  springs 
give  24 '25  grs.  free  acid  in  a  pint,  and  some  only  19 '30. 
The  therapeutic  properties  of  these  springs  are  of  course 
derived  from  their  chemical  contents.  According  to  Drs. 
White  and  Spring,  they  are  practically  curative  of  quite  a 
number  of  diseases,  the  catalogue  of  which  they  render. 

LEBANON  SPRING,  in  Columbia  County,  is  thermal,  its 
waters  being  70°  Fahr.  It  also  contains  saline  impregna- 
tions and  nitrogen  gas. 

Besides  the  springs  already  enumerated  as  medicinal 
waters,  there  are,  in  New  York,  a  number  of  brine  or  salt 
springs.  According  to  Dr.  Beck,  "  they  show  a  great  same- 
ness of  composition.  They  all  contain  chlorides  of  calcium 
and  magnesium,  with  common  salt.  They  also  contain  bro- 
mine and  iron,  and  are  of  great  value,  the  State  deriving 
considerable  revenue  from  the  salt  springs  of  Onondaga 
County." 

Springs  containing  nitrogen  gas  are  found  in  Seneca, 
Rensselaer,  and  Franklin. 

The  FREDONIA  SPRINGS,  as  observed,  are  highly  charged 
with  carburetted  hydrogen.  This  gas  occurs  in  quantities, 
and  is  extensively  used  for  ordinary  purposes  of  illumi- 
nation. 


MINERAL  SPRINGS  OF  NEW  YORK.       151 

Those  who  may  wish  fuller  and  more  detailed  accounts  of 
the  mineral  springs  of  New  York  and  their  geological  con- 
nections, may  find  them  in  Dr.  Beck's  "  Mineralogy  of  New 
York;"  Dr.  Bell's  "Mineral  Springs;"  also  in  Emmons, 
Hall,  and  geological  reports,  essays,  and  contributions. 
However  interesting,  really  useful,  and  instructive  it 
might  be  to  dwell,  especially  upon  their  therapeutic  pro- 
perties and  the  question  of  their  real  power  over  disease, 
it  would  be  out  of  place  in  a  mere  catalogue. 


152  THE   MOUNTAIN. 


NEW  JERSEY  SPRINGS. 

THE  principal  mineral  spring  of  New  Jersey  which  has 
any  reputation  as  medicinal,  is  SCHOOLEY'S  MOUNTAIN 
SPRING.  According  to  Dr.  McNevin,  the  characteristic  in- 
gredients are  muriate  and  sulphate  of  lime,  and  carbonated 
oxide  of  iron.  As  a  carbonated  chalybeate  this  is  a  valu- 
able water,  its  indications  being  those  which  call  for  the  use 
of  iron  generally ;  temperature,  50°  Fahr. 

Much  is  said  of  the  delightful  character  of  this  retreat, 
and  the  power  of  its  water;  not  enough  of  the  power  of 
exercise  and  pure  air. 


OHIO  MINERAL  WATERS. 

THERE  are  many  mineral  springs  in  Ohio,  according  to 
Dr.  Drake,  but  they  have  attracted  little  notice  and  been 
the  subject  of  little  scientific  investigation.  W.  W.  Mather, 
in  the  Geological  Report  of  Ohio,  asserts,  "  mineral  springs 
may  be  found  in  almost  every  county."  Those  observed  are 
of  the  classes  of  chalybeate,  saline,  and  sulphureous  waters. 

"YELLOW  SPRING"  is  in  Green  County,  on  the  Cincinnati 
and  Sandusky  Railroad,  sixty-four  miles  north  of  Cincin- 
nati. It  is  described  as  proceeding  from  the  same  geolo- 
gical filter  as  the  "chalybeate  springs  of  the  Olympian  Yal- 
ley,  in  Kentucky."  The  water,  possessing  the  temperature 
of  the  springs  of  the  surrounding  country,  52°  Fahr.,  is 
clear,  and  has  a  "slight  chalybeate  taste."  Drake  asserts 


OHIO    MINERAL   WATERS.  153 

it  to  be  a  tonic  of  "reputed  powers  in  convalescent  con- 
ditions from  severe  disease." 

"WESTPORT  SPRING"  is  in  Deer  Creek.  Its  chemical 
elements  are  "sulphate  of  magnesia,  iron,  and  carbonic 
acid,  its  properties  being  cathartic." 

There  are  mineral  springs  in  Crawford  County. 

CAREY'S  SPRING  contains  sulphuretted  hydrogen  and  com- 
mon salt. 

WYANDOT  SULPHUR  SPRING,  two  miles  below  Upper 
Sandusky,  contains  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  sulphuric  and 
muriatic  acids,  lime,  and  magnesia. 

ANNAPOLIS  SULPHUR  SPRING  contains  sulphuretted  hy- 
drogen. 

KNISLEY'S  or  CRAWFORD  SULPHUR  SPRING  contains  sul- 
phuretted hydrogen,  sulphate  of  magnesia,  and  lime,  and 
promises  to  be  an  attractive  watering-place. 

DELAWARE  SPRINGS,  and  springs  at  Cleveland  and  Me- 
dina, are  mentioned  by  Mather,  as  also  gas  and  petolium 
springs  at  several  localities. 

Salt  springs  are  numerous  in  Ohio,  and .  those  of  Mus- 
kingum  County,  Hocking  and  Sciota  valleys,  have  long 
been  known.  Other  springs  are  mentioned  in  the  Geologi- 
cal Report,  as  CHALYBEATE  SPRING,  near  Darrtown,  SUL- 
PHUR SPRING,  near  Zoar,  and  NEW  PHILADELPHIA,  etc. 


154  THE   MOUNTAIN. 


ILLINOIS  SPRINGS. 

OF  the  springs  of  this  State  there  is  an  extremely  meagre 
supply  of  facts.  In  a  recent  report,  Dr.  Norwood  has  given 
a  number  of  analyses,  but  not  of  mineral  waters.  Dr.  Bell 
enumerates  a  few,  quoting  from  Professor  Shepard. 

UPPER  ILLINOIS  SPRINGS  contain  carbonate  of  lime  and 
soda,  chlorides  of  sodium,  calcium,  and  magnesium,  sul- 
phate of  lime,  magnesia,  and  soda,  carbonic  acid  and  nitrogen 
gases.  They  possess  a  higher  temperature  than  the  sur- 
rounding springs.  There  is  a  sulphureous  spring  in  the 
bank  of  the  Illinois,  said  to  contain  "  sulphuretted  hydrogen 
and  hydrosulphuret  of  sodium."  Sulphur  springs  are  also 
found  in  the  bed  of  Yermilion  River. 


IOWA  SPRINGS. 

ABOVE  the  Raccoon  Fork,  on  the  Des  Moines,  associated 
with  the  carboniferous  rocks  of  that  region,  there  is  a  mine- 
ral water  referred  to  by  Owen  in  his  Geological  Report.  It 
oozes  from  the  argillaceous  layers  associated  with  the  coal, 
and  is  described  as  "  having  a  faint-brown  tinge,  acid  reac- 
tion, and  strong  styptic  taste." 

According  to  Mr.  Owen,  "  chemical  reagents  show  that  it 
is  an  acid  solution  of  sulphate  of  alumina,  sulphate  of  pot- 
ash, and  sulphate  of  protoxide  of  iron,  and  a  little  chloride 
of  potassium  and  sodium.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  double  alum  of 
potash  and  protoxide  of  iron.  The  same  kind  of  water  was 
observed  at  several  other  localities  on  the  Upper  Des 
Moines." 


VIRGINIA    MINERAL   SPRINGS.  155 


MISSOURI  MINERAL  SPRINGS. 

G.  C.  SWALLOW,  the  geologist  of  this  State,  has  re- 
ported some  mineral  waters.  "North  River  Lick,"  in 
Marion  County,  is  a  strong  brine  water.  There  are  chaly- 
beate springs  and  sulphur  waters  also  reported,  as  "  SUL- 
PHUR SPRING,"  on  Lick  Creek,  "  CHELTENHAM  SULPHUR 
SPRING,"  etc. 


VIRGINIA  MINERAL  SPRINGS. 

PROCEEDING  south,  the  next  springs  which  attract  atten- 
tion are  the  mineral  and  thermal  springs  of  Yirginia.  This 
State  has  been  peculiarly  blessed  in  this  order  of  gifts. 
These  springs  have  long  been  known,  and  justly  esteemed ; 
many  of  them  belonging  to  the  carbonated  class  of  true  ther- 
mal waters.  And  first  on  the  subject  of  thermalism,  the  facts, 
and  not  the  philosophy  thereof,  occupying  the  moment,  a 
word  on  theories  may  be  tolerated,  nevertheless. 

"THE  VALLEY,"  as  it  is  called,  between  the  Blue  Ridge 
and  the  Alleghany  Mountain,  is  the  location  of  a  number  of 
the  most  celebrated  of  the  Yirginia  springs.  They  are  quite 
numerous,  and  belong  to  several  of  the  classes  described. 
The  region  is  delightful,  possessing  beauty  of  scenery  and 
salubrity  of  atmosphere,  and,  as  a  spring  region,  has  be- 
come celebrated ;  the  marked  effects  of  its  waters  and  cli- 
mate, as  great  hygienic  and  therapeutic  powers  of  the  world, 
having  long  been  the  subject  of  scientific  interest  to  the  medi- 
cal profession  of  the  United  States. 


156  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

In  the  geological  theory  of  thermal  springs,  the  observa- 
tions of  Professor  Forbes  and  Dr.  Daubeney  find  some  con- 
firmation in  the  position  of  the  Yirginia  springs,  according 
to  Dr.  W.  B.  Rogers,  the  geologist  of  that  State,  who  points 
out  the  association  of  thermal  springs  with  anticlinal  axes 
and  faults,  showing  that  of  "  fifty-six  springs  mentioned  in 
twenty-five  distinct  localities  within  an  area  of  15,000  square 
miles,  forty-six  springs  are  on  or  near  axes,  seven  on  faults 
and  inversions,  and  three — the  only  group  of  this  kind  yet 
known  in  Virginia — near  point  of  contact  of  hypogene,  or 
primitive  with  Appalachian  rocks." 

The  observations  were  made  in  the  great  limestone  valley 
of  Yirginia,  upon  springs  decidedly  thermal,  according  to 
ordinary  acceptance,  applying  the  term  thermal,  as  Bischof 
does,  to  "  springs  with  temperature  above  the  atmospheric 
mean  of  the  region  in  which  they  are  situated." 

Professor  W.  B.  Rogers  considers  that  the  "great  propor- 
tion of  the  copious  and  constant  springs  of  the  vast  belt  of 
mountains  occupied  by  the  Appalachian  range,  especially 
those  of  the  great  limestone  valley  of  Yirginia,  are  truly 
though  slightly  thermal,  and  that  they  owe  to  a  deep  sub- 
terranean source  the  remarkable  uniformity  they  exhibit." 

This  excludes  the  formula  of  volcanism,  as  there  are  "  no 
volcanic  or  igneous  rocks  over  the  vast  surface  of  the  Ap- 
palachian region  ;"  the  source  of  heat  being  "hot  strata  in 
the  interior;  the  fractures  and  arches  of  the  rocks  being 
the  mere  appliances  mechanical,  by  which  the  water  is  ad- 
mitted to  the  region  of  constant  fires." 

Similar  observations  have  been  made  by  other  geologists 
in  different  parts  of  the  world. 

The  views  of  the  New  York  geologists  on  this  subject 
have  been  already  noticed,  and  Professor  Mather's  sugges- 
tions on  the  range  of  continued  northeast  disturbances 
alluded  to. 

On  the  subject  of  the  connection  of  mineral  springs  with 
axes,  we  have  also  some  interesting  facts  in  the  recent  re- 
port (for  1857)  of  Sterry  Hunt  to  Sir  William  E.  Logan, 


VIRGINIA  MINERAL  SPRINGS.         157 

of  the  Geological  Survey  of  Canada.  He  says  : — "  There 
are  few  mineral  springs  in  the  undisturbed  portion  of  the 
western  basin  of  Canada.  Almost  all  of  the  mineral  springs 
issue  from  palaeozoic  formations,  and  the  greater  part  from 
the  lower  silurian  rocks  of  Lower  Canada.  They  are  con- 
nected, as  elsewhere,  with  disturbances,  axes,  dislocations, 
faults,  and  intrusive  rocks." 

Of  the  springs  of  Virginia,  of  the  class  Thermal,  a  num- 
ber are  quite  celebrated. 

"WARM  SPRINGS,"  in  Bath  County,  are  fifty  miles  from 
Staunton,  and  one  hundred  and  seventy  from  Richmond. 
The  temperature  is  98-99°  F.  The  solid  contents  are  small 
in  quantity,  some  twenty  grains  in  the  gallon.  The  water 
also  contains  nitrogen,  carbonic  acid,  and  sulphuretted  hy- 
drogen gases.  It  is  used  both  internally  and  externally,  in 
a  number  of  diseases,  as  in  joint  and  skin-diseases,  paralysis, 
scrofulous  degenerations,  and  glandular  obstructions.  These 
waters  are  delightful  in  the  extreme  for  bathing,  also,  truly 
medicinal  in  quality.  They  have  been  long  in  use,  and  have 
been  much  extolled  by  writers  on  this  subject.  They  have 
reputation  in  an  extensive  catalogue  of  diseases,  embracing 
that  multifarious  variety  of  conditions  for  which  warm  bathing 
is  recommended.  The  gases  of  this  water  are  nitrogen,  sul- 
phuretted hydrogen,  and  carbonic  acid ;  and  the  saline  con- 
tents, muriate  of  lime,  sulphate  of  magnesia,  carbonate  and 
sulphate  of  lime,  with  soda.  Temperature,  98°  F. 

HOT  SPRINGS  are  also  in  Bath  County,  five  miles  west  of 
Warm  Spring.  The  water  is  from  98  to  100°  F.  They  are 
used  in  cases  of  disease  alone,  as  gout,  chronic  rheumatism, 
debility  positive,  together  with  chronic  derangements  of 
stomach  and  intestine ;  also,  glandular  obstructions,  chronic 
ulcers,  scrofulous  swellings,  diseases  of  skin,  and  paralytic 
cases.  They  are  used  internally  also  as  excitants,  in  weak 
conditions  of  the  stomach  and  bowels,  chronic  disease  of 
bowels  and  stomach,  also  as  diuretics  and  diaphoretics. 
According  to  Dr.  Goode,  the  water  of  Hot  Springs  is  not  a 
simple,  pure  hot  water,  but  contains  sulphate  and  carbonate 

14 


158  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

of  lime,  sulphate  of  soda  and  magnesia,  muriate  of  iron,  car- 
bonic acid,  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  nitrogen,  and  are  useful, 
internally  administered.* 

BATH  SPRING  is  situated  in  Berkley  County,  and  has 
been  styled  a  "mild,  carbonated,  thermal  water."  It  con- 
tains salts  of  lime  and  magnesia,  and  has  a  temperature  of 
73°  F.  It  is  said  to  be  useful  in  rheumatic  affections,  and 
in  several  chronic  derangements. 

Virginia  is  furnished  with  a  number  of  extremely  valuable 
springs  of  the  class  of  sulphureous  waters.  This  group  is 
one  of  much  interest.  The  springs  are  called  by  different 
names,  indicative  of  some  noticeable  fact  about  them,  as 
White  Sulphur,  Blue  Sulphur,  Salt  Sulphur,  and  Red  Sul- 
phur. 

WHITE  SULPHITE  SPRINGS  are  in  Greenbrier  County,  on 
Howard's  Creek,  in  the  midst  of  the  famous  region  of 
springs.  According  to  Augustus  H.  Hayes,  of  Roxbury, 
they  contain  nitrogen,  oxygen,  carbonic  acid,  and  hydrosul- 
phuric  acid  gases,  16  inches  to  231  inches  or  a  gallon  of  the 
water.  Of  saline  matter,  they  contain  sulphate  of  lime  in 
large  quantity,  sulphate  of  magnesia,  chloride  of  magnesium, 
carbonate  of  lime,  organic  matter,  with  some  silicates.  This 
is  of  the  order  of  saline  sulphuretted  waters.  Much  is  said 
of  a  "  certain  organic  substance"  by  the  chemist,  who  also 
suggests  that  the  "  medical  property  of  the  waters  are  due 
to  this  substance."  In  the  analysis  of  Professor  W.  B.  Ro- 
gers, of  Virginia,  the  list  is  a  long  one  of  the  mineral  con- 
tents, embracing,  in  100  cubic  inches  of  water, — 

Sulphate  of  lime,  31*680  grs. 
Sulphate  of  magnesia,  8*241    " 

Sulphate  of  soda,  4*050    " 

Carbonate  of  lime,  1-530    " 

Carbonate  of  magnesia,  0*506    " 

Chloride  of  calcium,  0*010    " 

*  Moormann's  "Mineral  Springs  of  Virginia." 


VIRGINIA   MINERAL   SPRINGS.  159 

Chloride  of  magnesium,  O'OTO  grs. 

Chloride  of  sodium,  0-226    " 

Protosulphate  of  iron,  0-069    " 

Sulphate  of  alumina,  0*012    " 

Iodine,  

Azotized  organic  matter,  0*005    " 

Gases,  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  nitrogen,  oxygen,  and  carbonic 

acid. 

Of  the  special  application  of  these  waters  to  disease,  or 
mode  of  operating,  and  the  whole  catalogue  of  infirmities 
curable  thereby,  also  on  manner  of  administration,  see  Dr. 
John  J.  Moormann's  clever  little  book  on  the  "Mineral 
Springs  of  Virginia."  It  is  considered  "the  strongest 
water  of  the  spring  region." 

BLUE  SULPHUR  SPRING  is  twenty-two  miles  west  of  White 
Sulphur,  on  Muddy  Creek,  one  of  the  waters  of  Greenbrier 
River.  This  spring  has  a  fine  reputation,  and  is  prescribed 
in  all  diseases  for  which  sulphur  waters  are  used.  Professor 
Rogers's  analysis  of  100  cubic  inches  of  water  gives  the  pre- 
sence of — 

Sulphate  of  lime,  20150  grs. 

Sulphate  of  magnesia,  2 '7  60  " 

Sulphate  of  soda,  9*020  " 

Carbonate  of  lime,  2'180  " 

Carbonate  of  magnesia,  0*481  " 

Chloride  of  magnesium,  0*401  " 

Chloride  of  calcium,  0*005  " 

Chloride  of  sodium,  1*868  " 

Hydrosulphate  of  sodium  and  magnesium,       

Oxide  of  iron,  existing  as  protosulphate,        0*015  " 

Iodine,  

Sulphur,  organic  matter,  3*000  " 

Dr.  Moormann  speaks  very  favorably  of  this  spring  as  a 
remedial  agent.  Temperature  variable,  from  46°  to  56°  F. 
Drs.  Hunter  and  Martin  give  favorable  reports  of  this  water. 


160  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

SALT  SULPHUR.  There  are  three  of  these  springs  in 
Monroe  County,  near  Union,  and  twenty-four  miles  south 
of  White  Sulphur.  They  are,  according  to  Dr  Moormann, 
"encircled  by  mountains  on  every  side,  having  Peters's 
Mountain  on  the  south  and  east,  Alleghany  to  the  north, 
and  Swope's  Mountain  to  the  west,  near  the  base  of  which 
are  the  three  springs."  The  waters  of  this  place  possess 
great  and  deserved  notoriety  as  medicinal,  and  the  place 
is  extremely  attractive.  Professor  Rogers's  analysis  gives, 
in  100  cubic  inches  of  water, — 

Sulphate  of  lime,  36*755  grs. 

Sulphate  of  magnesia,  7 '883    " 

Sulphate  of  soda,  9*682    " 

Carbonate  of  lime,  4*445    " 

Carbonate  of  magnesia,  1*434    " 

Chloride  of  sodium,  0*683    " 

Chloride  of  magnesium,  0*116    " 

Chloride  of  calcium,  0'025    " 

Oxide  of  iron,  0*042    " 

Iodine, 

Azotized  organic  matter,  blended  with  sul- 
phur, 0*004    " 
Earthy  phosphates,  trace, 
Gases : 

Sulphuretted  hydrogen,  1*50  cubic  inches. 

Nitrogen,  2*05     " 

Oxygen,  0*21     "        " 

Carbonic  acid,  5*75     " 

One  of  the  springs  contains  a  larger  quantity  of  iodine ; 
said  to  be  useful  in  scrofula,  goitre,  and  diseases  of  skin. 
Dr.  Mutter  speaks  of  the  salt  sulphur  waters  as  efficient  in 
a  variety  of  diseases,  as  chronic  affections  of  nervous  centre, 
chronic  kidney  and  bladder  diseases,  rheumatism,  gout,  and 
skin  disease,  chronic  liver  and  bowel  disorders.  Dr.  Moor- 
mann also  speaks  highly  of  the  salt  sulphur  waters  in  a 
number  of  complaints. 


VIRGINIA   MINERAL    SPRINGS.  161 

RED  SULPHUR  SPRINGS  are  in  the  southern  part  of  Mon- 
roe County,  south  of  White  Sulphur  forty-two  miles.  This 
has  been  a  celebrated  watering-place  for  many  years.  The 
temperature  of  the  spring  is  54°  F.  Professor  Rogers's 
analysis  gives  sulphate  of  soda,  lime,  and  magnesia,  carbon- 
ate of  lime,  and  muriate  of  soda.  It  also  contains  a  "  pecu- 
liar organic  substance,  mingled  with  sulphur."  Gaseous 
contents  are, — 

Sulphuretted  hydrogen,  4 '54  inches  to  gallon. 

Carbonic  acid,  8 '15      "       "       " 

Nitrogen,  4 '25      "       "       " 

This  is  "the  least  stimulating  of  the  sulphur  waters,"  and 
represented  as  even  sedative.  It  has  a  ''peculiar  and  dis- 
tinguished reputation  for  diseases  of  the  thoracic  viscera, 
INCLUDING  CONFIRMED  CONSUMPTION"  (!!??)  Has  undoubted 
efficacy  as  a  mineral  water,  but  on  the  subject  of  its  curing 
confirmed  consumption??  see  Moormann. 

SWEET  SPRINGS,  also  in  Monroe  County,  are  twenty-two 
miles  from  Salt  Sulphur  Springs.  These  springs  attracted 
attention  early  (1764)  to  their  waters.  They  were  analyzed 
by  Bishop  Madison,  in  1714;  said  to  be  a  tonic,  "with  just 
celebrity."  Their  temperature  is  73°  F.  The  analysis  of 
Rowelle  "  gives  saline  substances,  earthy  salts,  and  iron, 
sulphate  of  magnesia,  muriate  of  soda,  and  lime,  with  sili- 
cious  earth."  Sweet  Spring  is  a  popular  and  fashionable 
resort.  The  name  is  not  appropriate,  as  the  water  has  the 
usual  taste  of  saline  waters.  It  possesses  excess  of  carbonic 
acid,  and  is  said  to  be  useful  in  a  number  of  diseases,  used 
both  by  bathing  and  internally.  The  water  is  especially 
lauded  for  bathing  purposes,  as  a  luxury,  and  for  medicinal 
qualities. 

SWEET  CHALYBEATE  SPRING  is  in  Alleghany  County, 
west  of  Sweet  Spring.  One  of  the  springs  here  has  the 
same  character  as  the  last-named  spring,  and  the  other  con- 
tains a  larger  quantity  of  iron.  Rowelle  gives,  in  one  quart 
of  water, — 

14* 


162  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

Carbonate  of  lime,  4  grs. 

Carbonate  of  magnesia,  3  " 

Carbonate  of  iron,  2  " 

Silex,  1  '.< 

Sulphate  of  magnesia,  1  " 

Muriate  of  soda,  -J  " 

Iron,  combined  with  carbonic  acid,  1  " 

Professor  Rogers  gives  sulphate  of  lime,  magnesia,  and 
soda,  carbonate  of  lime,  chloride  of  magnesium,  sodium,  and 
calcium,  oxide  of  iron,  organic  matter,  and  iodine.  The 
iron,  he  says,  is  dissolved  in  the  water  as  a  carbonate.  The 
gases  in  this  water  are  nitrogen,  oxygen,  sulphuretted  hy- 
drogen. The  bubbles  which  rise  from  the  spring  are  nitro- 
gen and  carbonic  acid  ;  temperature  of  the  spring  being  TT° 
to  80°  F.  Waters  possess  the  same  therapeutic  properties 
as  other  springs  of  the  class;  as  a  tonic  extremely  cele- 
brated. Dr.  Moormann  is  enthusiastic  in  his  admiration  of 
and  belief  in  their  efficacy. 

DIBRELL'S  SPRING  is  in  Botetourt  County,  nineteen 
miles  from  the  Natural  Bridge,  and  forty-four  miles  from 
the  White  Sulphur  Springs,  on  the  stage-road. 

Professor  Rogers's  analysis  gives  carbonate  of  soda,  sul- 
phate of  soda,  chloride  of  sodium,  carbonate  of  magnesia, 
peroxide  of  iron,  silica  dissolved,  "organic  matter,  contain- 
ing chloride  of  potassium,  nitrogen,  carbonate  of  lime,  and 
carbonate  of  ammonia.  Gases :  carbonic  acid,  oxygen,  sul- 
phuretted hydrogen,  nitrogen, — this  spring  possessing  the 
usual  character  of  sulphur  waters,  and  used  medicinally  the 
same  way." 

RAWLEY'S  SPRING  is  in  Rockingham  County,  northwest  of 
Harrisonsburg  twelve  miles ;  water  pure,  chalybeate,  and 
strong,  good  tonic.  According  to  Dr.  Moormann,  "  as  a  pure 
tonic,  it  deserves  to  stand  at  the  very  head  of  that  class  of 
medicines."  No  analysis  of  the  water  yet  made. 

HEALING  SPRINGS  are,  according  to  Dr.  Burke,  "  in  the 
gorge  of  the  mountains,  near  the  road  to  the  celebrated 


VIRGINIA   MINERAL   SPRINGS.  163 

Falling  Spring,  one  of  the  curiosities  of  this  region,  and 
three  and  a  half  miles  south  of  Hot  Springs."  In  chemi- 
cal contents  they  are  apparently  very  much  like  the  "  SWEET 
SPRINGS,"  or  perhaps  more  like  the  Red  Sweet,  since  the 
chalybeate  taste  is  more  distinct  than  in  that  of  the  former. 
Medical  virtues  transcendent ;  curing  scrofulous  and  skin 
affections,  and  fibrous  diseases  in  the  shape  of  "rheumatisms 
and  sprains."  Temperature  of  spring,  84°  Fahr.  As  a 
luxury  and  real  healthful  operative,  the  bath  waters  of  this 
spring  are  to  be  commended  largely. 

HOLSTEIN  SPRINGS  are  found  in  Scott  County,  southwest 
part  of  the  State,  and  belong  to  the  saline  class.  They  are 
thermal,  having  a  temperature  of  68°  Fahr.,  and  16°  above 
the  mean  temperature  of  the  springs  about.  The  water  is 
charged  with  sulphur,  magnesia,  and  lime,  to  the  extent  of 
41-14  grains  to  the  gallon.  Their  action  is  directed  to  kid- 
neys and  skin,  and  especially  whole  digestive  tube. 

CHURCH  HILL  ALUM  SPRING  is  in  the  city  of  Richmond. 
Mineral  elements,  Epsom  salts,  leading  force  also  in  large 
quantities  of  salts  of  iron  and  alumina.  Thus  the  water  is 
tonic  from  aluminous  and  ferruginous  qualities  of  great 
value,  consequently  it  is  serviceable  in  a  number  of  affec- 
tions as  a  giver  of  tone  and  a  condenser  of  tissue.  (See 
Bell.) 

Seventeen  miles  above  Richmond,  near  James  River,  in 
Powhattan  County,  are  the  two 

HUGUENOT  SPRINGS,  one  sulphureous,  the  other  chaly- 
beate. The  sulphur  spring  has  the  properties  of  others  of 
the  class,  the  chalybeate,  also,  possessing  qualities  of  its 
class. 

WARRENTON  WHITE  SULPHUR  SPRINGS  are  near  that 
town,  in  Farquier  County.  They  are  described  as  a  mild 
sulphureous  water,  applicable  to  certain  derangements  of 
the  stomach,  and  bowels,  and  rheumatism. 

CAPON  SPRINGS  are  some  thirty  miles  from  Winchester. 
This  place  is  represented  as  a  charming  retreat.  No  ana- 


164  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

lysis  has  been  made  of  the  waters,  said  to  be  useful  in  sto- 
mach derangements  and  glandular  disorders. 

JORDAN'S  WHITE  SULPHUR  SPRINGS  are  near  the  Win. 
Chester  and  Harper's  Ferry  Railroad.  They  are  said  to 
possess  curative  properties  over  cutaneous  diseases,  chronic 
affections  of  the  stomach  and  rheumatism. 

SHANNONDALE  SALINE  SPRINGS  are  near  Charleston, 
Jefferson  County,  and  near  the  banks  of  the  Shenandoah 
River.  They  are  said  to  possess  diuretic  and  aperient 
properties. 

The  BATH  ALUM  SPRINGS  are  at  the  eastern  base  of 
Warm  Spring  Mountain,  on  the  road  from  Richmond  to  the 
Ohio  River.  Dr.  Hayes's  analysis  of  these  springs  give  the 
presence  of  carbonic  and  sulphuric  acids,  with  the  salts  of 
iron  and  alumina.  They  possess,  of  course,  the  medicinal 
properties  of  those  substances,  being  tonic  and  astringent. 
They  are  used  in  various  chronic  affections,  diseases  of  mu- 
cous surfaces,  and  general  debility,  also  used  in  cutaneous 
diseases,  scrofula,  and  chronic  ulcerations. 

ROCKBRIDGE  ALUM  SPRINGS  are  situated  between  the 
North  Mountain  and  Mill  Mountain,  seventeen  miles  from 
Lexington.  Dr.  Hayes's  analysis  gives  an  excess  of  free  sul- 
phuric acid  and  sulphate  of  alumina.  This  is  of  the  order 
of  sour  springs  already  spoken  of,  useful  in  diseases  in  which 
these  chemical  elements  are  usually  applied. 


KENTUCKY   SPRINGS.  165 


KENTUCKY  SPRINGS. 

IN  the  Second  Report  (185T)  of  the  Geological  Survey  of 
this  State,  by  David  Dale  Owen,  thirty-eight  mineral  and 
other  waters  are  stated  to  have  been  examined  and  ana- 
lyzed ;  twenty-five  qualitatively  and  thirteen  quantitatively, 
by  Dr.  Peter.  There  is  great  sameness  in  the  mineral  con- 
tents of  these  springs,  which  are  generally  lime,  magnesia, 
soda,  with  acids  carbonic,  sulphuric,  iron,  all  of  which  are 
combined  in  endless  proportions  and  quantities. 

YELVINGTON  SPRING,  in  Daviess  County,  shows  the  pre- 
sence of  these  substances ;  also,  OLIVER  SPRING,  in  same 
county. 

Owen  quotes  Professor  J.  Lawrence  Smith's  analysis  of 
PAROQUET  SPRING.  This  consists  of  nineteen  substances, 
or  different  combinations,  to  wit,  sodium,  calcium,  mag- 
nesium, potassium,  with  chlorine, — these  substances  also  in 
combination  with  sulphuric  and  carbonic  acids,  iodine,  and 
bromine.  It  also  contains  organic  matter,  silica  and  sul- 
phuretted hydrogen. 

ALUM  SPRING,  at  the  base  of  Burdett  Knob,  contains 
sulphate  of  alumina  and  protoxide  of  iron,  bicarbonates  of 
lime  and  magnesia,  with  strong  and  deleterious  properties, 
said  to  be  poisonous.  Near  this,  a  well  contains  water  of 
much  the  same  character. 

Yates's  mineral  water  contains  lime,  magnesia,  soda,  chlo- 
rine, sulphuric  and  carbonic  acids. 

NEVIEN'S  SULPHUR  SPRING,  in  Lincoln  County,  at  the 
sources  of  Salt  River,  contains  the  same  ingredients,  with 
sulphuretted  hydrogen. 

ROCHESTER  SPRINGS,  in  Boyl  County,  shows  a  large 
amount  of  sulphate  of  magnesia ;  also,  soda,  lime,  alumina, 
and  iron. 


166  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

In  Washington  and  Nelson  counties  are  springs  contain- 
ing the  same  ingredients. 

WHITE  SULPHUR  and  MAMMOTH  WELL  contain  the  same 
items,  in  somewhat  modified  proportions.  Mr.  Owen  recites 
the  names  and  contents  of  a  great  many  springs  of  Ken- 
tucky called  mineral  and  sulphur  waters.  Their  constituent 
principles  are  in  the  above-named  substances  repeated  over 
again,  with  occasionally  a  new  item  or  two. 

Dr.  Peter's  Table  of  the  thirteen  waters  of  Lincoln  County 
shows,  with  slightly  modified  proportions,  the  following  ma- 
terials : — carbonate  of  iron,  carbonate  of  manganese,  car- 
bonate of  lime,  carbonate  of  magnesia,  sulphates  of  lime, 
magnesia,  potash,  and  soda,  chlorides  of  magnesium  and 
sodium,  with  silica.  Of  their  connection  with  geological 
formations,  Mr.  Owen  speaks  of  some  having  their  "  origin 
in  the  black  shales  of  the  Devonian  Epoch,"  or  rocks  of  the 
"  Lower  Silurian  Period,"  whilst  "  Ho  WELL  MINERAL  SPRING 
issues  in  a  copious  flow  from  the  sub-carboniferous  lime- 
stone of  the  'Barrens'  of  Hardin  County."  Many  of  the 
sulphur  and  magnesian  waters  are  associated  with  the  rotten 
sandstone  or  silicious  mudstone,  and  the  Blue  Limestone 
Formation.  His  analysis  differs  slightly  from  that  of  Dr. 
Raymond,  procured  by  Dr.  Drake,  and  gives  sulphates  of 
magnesia  and  lime,  bicarbonates  of  magnesia  and  lime,  with 
a  trace  of  chlorides,  and  carbonate  of  iron  in  the  "  HAR- 
RODSBURG  SALOON  SPRING." 

The  GREENVILLE  SPRING,  at  Harrodsburg,  has  a  trace  of 
sulphuretted  hydrogen  and  iron,  otherwise  like  Saloon 
Spring. 

In  the  Third  Geological  Report  of  Kentucky  (1851,) 
Owen  notices  twenty-six  mineral  waters :  qualitative  ana- 
lyses and  testings  at  fountain-heads  of  many,  and  quanti- 
tative analyses  of  a  few.  This  list  includes  some  springs 
already  examined  and  reported  by  Drake  and  others.  From 
the  great  prevalence  of  mineral  springs  in  Kentucky,  it 
might  occur  to  inquire,  whether  it  may  not  be  difficult 
to  find  any  pure  water  in  a  region  so  crowded  with 
"  licks"  and  mineral  fountains.  In  this  Report  (volume  third) 


KENTUCKY   SPRINGS.  167 

the  Harrodsburg  group  is  again  reviewed.  The  chemical 
contents  nearly  the  same  as  already  quoted  for  the  Saloon 
and  Greenville  Springs,  the  latter  retaining  the  trace  of  sul- 
phuretted hydrogen.  It  is  stated  that  these  "  springs  issue 
from  the  beds  of  blue  limestone  near  its  junction  with  the 
underlying  marble  rocks. "  These  springs  of  Kentucky,  re- 
ported by  Mr.  Owen,  have  a  stereotype  resemblance, — all 
containing  the  same  salts  of  the  same  bases. 

Jones's  Mineral  Water,  Washington  County,  contains 
lime,  soda,  magnesia,  sulphur,  with  chlorine,  carbonic  and 
sulphuric  acids. 

In  Nelson  County  there  are  a  number  of  mineral  waters, 
as  Grigsby's  White  Sulphur,  Mammoth  Well,  Bell's  Mineral 
Water,  and  others,  their  contents  being  common  salt,  lime, 
magnesia,  iron,  and  sulphur,  with  great  sameness  in  style  of 
combination, 

In  Shelby  and  Henry  counties  there  are  sulphur  and 
chalybeate  waters,  and  in  Owen  County,  a  weak  saline. 
Some  springs  are  quoted  as  poisonous  to  cattle  from  excess 
of  the  salts  of  magnesia. 

The  waters  of  BLUE  LICK,  ESCULAPIAN,  and  ALUM 
SPRINGS,  are  reported  with  usual  salts  of  lime,  magnesia, 
soda,  and  sulphur.  Qualitative  analyses  are  also  given  of 
OLYMPIAN  SPRINGS,  in  Bath  County.  They  differ  but  little 
from  the  large  number  noticed,  containing  lime,  magnesia, 
soda,  with  some  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  and  sulphate  of 
magnesia  in  quantities. 

Sudduth  Springs  on  Mud  Lick,  Sweet  Lick  Estill 
Springs,  Irvine's  Sulphur,  Russell's  Sulphur  and  Chaly- 
beate, in  Russell  County,  are  also  reported.  They  contain 
the  regular  routine  of  ingredients  characterizing  KENTUCKY 
MINERAL  SPRINGS. 

"A  strong  sulphuretted  saline"  is  reported  in  Kettle 
Creek,  Cumberland  County;  also,  strong  sulphur  springs 
in  Marion  and  Taylor  counties.  These  springs  are  repre- 
sented to  contain  large  amounts  of  sulphuretted  hydrogen, 
in  addition  to  the  salts  of  lime,  magnesia,  and  soda. 

Lindsey's  Mineral  Water,  in  Christian  County,  is   also 


168  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

strongly  impregnated  with  sulphuretted  hydrogen.  These 
waters  are  highly  commended  by  Owen  as  medical  waters, 
except  those  reputed  to  be  poisonous,  in  connection  with 
which  he  suggests  the  geological  origin  of  the  somewhat 
mysterious  milk-sickness. 

The  State  of  Kentucky  owes,  also,  to  the  genius  and 
labor  of  the  illustrious  Dr.  Drake  an  elaborate  and  world- 
extended  notice  of  her  mineral  springs.  This  indefatigable 
lover  of,  and  worker  for  man,  in  his  splendid  critique  on  the 
Nosology,  or  Table  of  Diseases  of  the  Mississippi  Valley, 
has  left  no  subject  of  science,  connected  with  this  depart- 
ment of  human  knowledge,  untouched.  His  account  of 
Kentucky  Springs,  scenery,  and  resources,  whilst  rigidly  sci- 
entific, has  all  the  charm  of  romance,  even  mounting  to  the 
sphere  of  poetry  or  the  witchery  of  song.  For  particulars 
on  mineral  springs  especially,  and  everything  else,  see  one 
of  the  most  interesting  books  printed  in  several  hundred 
years,  viz.  "  Principle  Diseases  of  the  Valley  of  North 
America,"  by  Daniel  Drake,  M.D. 

According  to  Dr.  Drake,  HARRODSBURG  SPRINGS  are  in 
"the  basin  of  Salt  River,"  near  the  town  of  Harrodsburg. 
This  is  an  elevated  spot  near  the  origin  of  several  veinlets 
of  rivers.  To  use  his  own  words,  "it  is  not  in  a  volcanic 
district.  In  every  direction,  for  several  miles  round,  the 
country  is  as  free  from  drained  lands,  marshes,  swales,  and 
ponds,  as  any  other  equal  area  in  the  Ohio  Basin."  Ac- 
cording to  Professor  Yandell,  they  issue  from  the  magnesian 
limestone  "  which  rests  upon  the  oldest  formations  known  in 
the  Ohio  Basin."  There  are  here  two  springs  :  first,  GREEN- 
VILLE SPRING.  Dr.  Raymond,  of  Cincinnati,  gives  an  ana- 
lysis of  this  spring,  which,  in  the  pint  of  water,  contains, — 

Bicarbonate  of  magnesia,  2*8*7  grs. 

"   lime,  0-86    " 

Sulphate  of  magnnesia,  crystallized,  16*16    " 

Sulphate  of  lime,  11*6      " 
Also  a  trace  of  chloride  of  sodium. 


KENTUCKY   SPRINGS.  169 

Of  the  other  "  SALOON"  or  CHALYBEATE  SPRING,  the  same 
gentleman  gives,  in  same  quantity  of  water, — 

Bicarbonate  of  lime,  4 -31  grs. 

Magnesia,  11-43    " 

Bicarbonate  of  iron,  0*50    " 

Sulphate  of  magnesia,  crystallized,  21*92    " 

Sulphate  of  lime,  10-24    " 

Chloride  of  sodium,  1-20    " 

The  predominating  salts  are  those  of  lime  and  magnesia, 
containing  neither  free  carbonic  acid,  nor  sulphuretted  hy- 
drogen gases.* 

These  waters  are  prescribed  in  an  extensive  catalogue  of 
diseases,  including  derangements  of  the  contents  of  the  large 
splanchnic  cavities, — abdomen,  thorax,  and  head.  Of  the 
value  of  these  waters  hygienically,  also  of  the  delights  of  the 
place  as  a  resort  for  luxury,  Dr.  Drake  is  eloquent  in  his 
praises.  He  thinks  they  will  "compare  advantageously  with 
any  to  be  found  in  Europe  or  America."  Certainly,  from 
his  account,  few  places  possess  a  tithe  of  the  charms  of  this 
favored  spot.  Of  the  environs  of  Harrodsburg  he  speaks 
with  extravagance,  as  possessing  all  elements  of  the  roman- 
tic and  beautiful,  while  its  medicinal  waters  are  represented 
as  possessing  healing  powers  over  a  large  number  of  dis- 
eases, the  whole  locality  having  been  favored  by  nature  with 
a  rare  and  wonderful  combination  of  select  and  valuable 
things. 

ROCHESTER  SPRING  is  situated  one  mile  from  Perrysville. 
From  Dr.  Drake's  Report  it  is  of  the  same  character  as  the 
Harrodsburg  in  "sensible  qualities,  composition,  and  effects." 
The  following  group  has  been  noticed  by  Owen,  as  already 
quoted. 

OLYMPIAN,  or  MUD  LICK  SPRINGS  are  in  Bath  County, 

*  The  analysis  procured  by  Owen,  as  we  have  just  seen,  does  con- 
tain some  sulphuretted  hydrogen. 

15 


170  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

fifty  miles  from  Lexington  east,  on  Licking  River.  This, 
according  to  Dr.  Drake,  is  "  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  noted 
watering-places  in  Kentucky."  There  are  several  springs 
of  different  characters  at  this  place,  which  are  designated, 
by  Drake,  "salt  sulphur,  white  sulphur,  and  chalybeate." 
The  salt  sulphur  has  a  temperature  of  58°  F.  It  is  a  weak 
lime-water  charged  with  sulphuretted  hydrogen.  The  quan- 
tity of  salt  is  smaller  than  many  or  most  of  the  springs  in 
tlie  West.  "  It  contains  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  chloride  of 
sodium,  or  common  salt,  muriate  of  lime,  and  carbonate  of 
soda."  The  WHITE  SULPHUR  is  half  a  mile  from  this,  and 
"said  to  have  made  its  first  appearance  in  the  earthquakes 
of  1811."  Composition  like  the  Salt  Sulphur,  with  "differ- 
ence in  proportion  of  elements."  There  is,  in  the  SULPHUR, 
a  much 'larger  quantity  of  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  but  less 
chloride  of  sodium,  with  some  carbonate  of  soda.  Tempera- 
ture, 59°  F. 

The  IRON  SPRINGS  are  two  in  number,  half  a  mile  from 
the  last,  with  temperature  52°  F.,  and  contain  "carbonate 
of  iron,  with  the  proportion  of  muriates  and  carbonates 
which  our  common  springs  afford. " 

VITRIOL  SPRING  contains  "  muriates  and  carbonates  only, 
and  these  in  such  moderate  quantities  that  it  is  used  for  culinary 
purposes,  although  spoken  of  as  medicinal."  The  medical 
properties  of  this  spring  are  not  lauded  exceedingly,  although 
the  place  is  described  as  a  broken  surface,  peculiar  from  irre- 
gular hills  and  ravines,  and  consequently  attractive  for  its 
beauty  of  scenery  and  the  wildness  of  its  landscapes.  Accord- 
ing to  Dr.  Peter,  "there  are  six  springs  belonging  to  the 
Olympian  group, — three  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  two  iron 
saline,  and  one  acidulous  saline ;  the  contents  not  great  in 
quantity. " 

Of  the  Olympian  group,  Bath  County,  Owen  gives  quali- 
tative testing  of  five  springs.  The  first  is  a  weak  chalybeate, 
with  salts  of  lime,  magnesia,  soda.  The  second  contains  more 
iron,  with  many  of  the  same  salts.  The  third  is  a  good  saline  al- 
kaline chalybeate.  The  fourth  contains  a  large  list  of  salts  of 


KENTUCKY   SPRINGS.  171 

lime,  magnesia,  soda,  iron,  with  sulphuretted  hydrogen  and 
iodide  of  sodium.  Owen  suggests  that  this  "  is  a  very  valuable 
mineral  water,  from  the  fact  that  it  contains  iodine."  The 
fifth  is  described  as  a  good  alkaline  sulphur  water,  containing 
also  the  ordinary  salts  of  the  waters  of  this  region. 

At  BLUE  LICKS,  Drake  reports  that  there  are  several 
springs,  all  saline  sulphur.  They  are  on  the  Licking  River, 
twenty-four  miles  from  the  Ohio.  Salt  was  formerly  made 
from  these  waters,  but  being  weak,  they  were  abandoned. 

In  the  Third  Geological  Report  of  this  State,  already 
quoted,  Mr.  Owen  has  an  extended  and  valuable  account  of 
the  "Lower  Blue  Lick  Spring,"  Nicholas  County.  From  a 
minute  examination  of  the  spring,  it  is  discovered  to  have  a 
temperature  of  62°  F.,  or  seven  degrees  above  the  mean 
temperature  of  the  region.  A  quantitative  analysis  has 
been  made  of  this  water  by  Mr.  Owen,  which  is  found  to 
contain  sulphuretted  hydrogen  and  carbonic  acid  gases,  car- 
bonate of  lime  and  magnesia,  alumina,  phosphate  of  lime 
and  oxide  of  iro,n,  chloride  of  sodium,  magnesium,  and  potas- 
sium, bromide  of  magnesium,  iodide  of  magnesium,  sul- 
phate of  lime  and  potash,  silicic  acid,  oxide  of  manganese, 
crenic  and  apocrenic  acids.  He  enumerates  a  long  list  of 
diseases,  "as  chronic  disorders  of  liver,  dyspepsia,  chronic 
cutaneous  diseases,  rheumatism,  gout,  scrofulous  affections, 
and  also  speaks  of  the  water  as  a  nervous  stimulant,  dia- 
phoretic, and  diuretic."  The  value  of  this  water,  as  highly 
medicinal,  is  insisted  upon  by  Mr.  Owen.  (See  Third  Geo- 
logical Report,  from  page  361  to  page  368.) 

According  to  Peter,  LOWER  BLUE  LICK  SPRING  is  a  sa- 
line sulphur.  "It  emerges  from  the  Great  Blue  Limestone 
Formation  of  the  West, — a  formation  of  great  extent,  com- 
posed of  limestone  layers  of  greater  or  less  thickness,  hardness, 
and  purity,  with  beds  of  bluish,  marly  clay,  presenting  some- 
times a  shaly  structure ;  all  rich  in  the  fossil  remains  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  deep,  primeval  ocean,  under  which  they 
were  evidently  deposited."  The  Spring  of  the  Big  Bone 
Lick  is  in  this  formation,  and  exhibits  the  same  general 


172  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

character  as  the  Blue  Licks,  that  is,  salt  sulphur.  A  num- 
ber of  salt  springs  are  found  in  this  formation,  also  salt  wells. 
At  the  BLUE  LICKS  there  are  several  springs,  all  of  which 
are  very  similar  in  composition,  according  to  Professor 
Peter.  The  salt  wells  or  deep  waters  contain  chlorides  of 
sodium,  potassium,  calcium,  and  magnesium,  sulphate  and 
carbonate  of  lime,  impregnated  with  sulphuretted  hydrogen, 
while  the  surface  springs  are  simply  limestone  water  with 
little  salt  or  gas. 

In  Keene,  Jessamine  County,  there  is  a  well  in  the  Lime- 
stone Formation  containing  a  sulphureous  salt  water,  with 
medicinal  properties.  Contents,  sulphuretted  hydrogen  and 
carbonic  acid  gases,  bicarbonates  of  lime,  magnesia,  and 
soda,  chlorides  of  sodium,  magnesium,  calcium,  with  potas- 
sium, and  some  iron.  The  water  is  not  so  strong  as  BLUE 
LICK,  containing  16  grains  of  salt  in  1000  grains  of  water. 
(Peter.) 

In  Scott  County  there  is  a  well,  in  this  Formation, 
116  feet  deep,  the  water  of  which  contains  chlorides  of  so- 
dium, calcium,  and  magnesium,  with  the  odor  of  sulphuretted 
hydrogen. 

Another  well,  in  Harrison  County,  also  in  the  "Blue 
Limestone  Formation,"  105  feet  deep,  contains  a  water  with 
sulphureous  odor,  and  sixteen  parts  in  a  thousand  of  saline 
matter,  chloride  of  sodium,  calcium,  magnesium,  and  potas- 
sium, sulphate  of  lime,  bicarbonates  of  lime,  magnesia,  and 
iron,  with  some  iodine.  (Peter.)  It  resembles  Blue  Lick 
waters. 

Other  wells,  in  the  same  formation,  exhibit  the  same  cha- 
racter of  waters ;  there  being  also  a  number  in  Lexington 
with  the  elements  above  enumerated.  There  are  none  of 
the  waters  of  the  Lime  Formation  so  valuable  as  the  "  Lower 
Blue  Lick."  (Peter.)  At  this  place  the  principal  spring 
is  near  Licking  River;  temperature  of  water,  62°  F.  "The 
water  is  of  a  yellowish-green  tint,  depositing  a  yellowish- 
gray  sediment.  This  color  comes  from  the  decomposition 
of  the  chemical  elements  of  the  water, — the  hydrogen,  oxygen, 


KENTUCKY   SPRINGS.  173 

sulphur,  iron,  and  carbon,  undergoing  certain  changes  of 
position  from  the  original  composition  of  the  water."  The 
water  also  contains  nitrogen  gas,  with  carbonic  acid,  and 
sulphuretted  hydrogen.  For  saline  contents,  see  analysis 
just  quoted  from  the  third  volume  of  the  Geological  Survey 
of  Kentucky. 

The  medicinal  properties  are  those  of  salt  sulphur  waters 
generally,  and  used  in  all  chronic  derangements  to  which  sul- 
phur waters  are  prescribed,  both  internally  and  externally. 
(See  Owen.)  This  water  is  distributed  extensively  by  barrel- 
ing and  bottling.  Being,  according  to  Dr.  Drake,  in  a  region 
of  perpetual  malaria,  the  place  is  thus  doomed  for  certain 
seasons  of  the  year. 

Of  ESTILL  SPRINGS,  in  Estill  County,  Kentucky,  see  also 
Report,  page  245.  Two  springs,  called  "White  and  Eed 
Sulphur,"  give,  in  the  first,  carbonic  acid  and  sulphuretted 
hydrogen  gases,  carbonates  of  soda,  lime,  magnesia,  and 
iron,  sulphates  of  lime,  magnesia,  and  soda,  chloride  of  so- 
dium, and  hydrosulphate  of  soda;  specific  gravity,  1-001; 
saline  contents,  0*09  per  cent. 

The  "  RED  SULPHUR"  contains  carbonic  and  sulphuretted 
hydrogen  gases,  carbonates  of  lime,  magnesia,  soda,  and  iron, 
sulphates  of  soda,  lime,  and  magnesia,  chlorides  of  sodium, 
calcium,  and  magnesium,  and  hydrosulphate  of  soda.  The 
composition  is  similar  to  White,  only  differing  in  proportion 
of  elements  and  specific  gravity,  1*0002;  saline  contents 
0'04  per  cent.  (Peter.) 

The  Kentucky  springs  have  each  special  advocates,  who 
speak  emphatically  of  the  power  of  their  waters.  Some  of 
these  authorities  are  so  high  that  the  medicinal  properties 
of  the  waters  as  represented,  stand,  with  certain  qualifications 
which  apply  to  all  springs,  accredited  by  the  profession  at 
large ;  as  do  those  of  the  other  States,  which  have  been 
made  the  subject  of  special  examination.  When  the  Geo- 
logical Survey,  now  progressing  under  Professor  Owen,  shall 
have  been  finished,  no  doubt  the  mineral  springs  of  Kentucky 
will  appear  with  the  last  chemical  details  and  geological 

15* 


174  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

associations,  perfected  for  the  inspection  of  the  world.  This 
is  a  reasonable  expectation,  bearing  in  mind  the  high  posi- 
tion of  the  principal  of  the  Survey  of  that  State,  and  his 
accomplished  assistants. 


TENNESSEE  SPRINGS. 

BUT  few  reports  have  been  made  of  the  mineral  springs 
of  Tennessee.  Dr.  Troost,  the  geologist  of  the  State,  gave 
an  account,  some  time  ago,  of  a  number  of  them.  These  are 
mostly  of  the  sulphureous  class ;  several  of  them  are  in  Da- 
vidson County,  French  Lick,  Sam's  Creek,  and  White's 
Creek. 

In  Franklin  County  are  Winchester  and  Brown's  springs  ; 
Maysfield,  in  Williamson  County;  Terrie's,  in  Rutherford 
County.  These  waters  contain  sulphate  of  lime,  chloride  of 
sodium,  and  sulphuretted  hydrogen.  The  sulphuretted  hy- 
drogen is  said  to  be  in  larger  quantity  than  most  of  the 
sulphur  waters  of  the  United  States. 

Twelve  miles  from  the  City  of  Nashville  is  WHITE'S  CREEK 
SPRING,  said  to  contain  sulphates  ,of  iron,  magnesia,  and 
sulphur.  This  water  has  reputation  in  skin  diseases  and 
calculous  derangements.  Dr.  Troost  gives,  to  20  ounces  of 
this  water, — 

Sulphuretted  hydrogen,  6 '25  cubic  inches. 

Carbonic  acid,  5-90      "       " 

Solid  matter,  16  grains,  viz. — 

Carbonate  of  lime,  5 '50  grs. 

Sulphate  of  lime,  3 '05    " 

Sulphate  of  soda,  2 '05    " 

Sulphate  of  magnesia,  3*00    " 

Hydrosulphate  of  soda,  1*01    " 


TENNESSEE    SPRINGS.  175 

Twenty  miles  from  Nashville  are  ROBINSON'S  SPRINGS, 
which  are  saline. 

At  or  near  Nashville  mineral  springs  are  reported. 

Dr.  Bell  speaks  of  East  Tennessee  as  exceedingly  delightful, 
and  recommends  the  climate  and  watering-places. 

LEE  SPRINGS  are  twenty  miles  east  of  Knoxville,  one  of 
which  is  a  strong  iron  water,  the  other  two  are  sulphur. 
There  are  also  sulphur  springs  in  Granger  County. 

In  Franklin  County,  near  Winchester,  are  the  WINCHES- 
TER SPRINGS,  some  seventy  miles  from  Nashville.  There  are 
several  varieties  of  water  here  that  have  attained  some  cele- 
brity. They  are  pure  iron  and  sulphur  waters,  and  said  to 
be  actively  medicinal ;  some  of  the  waters  give  6  cubic  inches 
of  gas  to  20  ounces ;  situated  in  an  interesting  region  and 
solidly  attractive  to  invalids.  Near  these  springs  are  ALLI- 
ANCE SPRINGS,  which  are  reported  to  possess  the  same  quali- 
ties as  those  last  mentioned. 

Near  Knoxville  are  MONTVALE  SPRINGS.  The  spot  is  de- 
scribed as  being  very  beautiful,  and  the  waters  truly  medi- 
cinal. 

On  French  Broad  River  there  are  springs  with  a  tem- 
perature of  96°  Fahr.  Troost  notices  a  number  of  other 
springs. 

CASTILIAN  SPRING,  in  Sumner  County,  contains  sulphu- 
retted hydrogen,  sulphate  of  magnesia  and  lime,  and  hydro- 
chlorate  of  soda. 

HAGER'S  SPRING,  in  this  county,  contains  sulphuretted 
hydrogen,  carbonic  acid,  and  sulphate  of  lime. 

SAM'S  CREEK  SPRINGS,  Davidson  County,  contains,  in  20 
fluid  ounces, — 

Sulphuretted  hydrogen,  8 '05  inches. 

Carbonic  acid,  1'05      " 

Solid  contents,  6  grains,  composed  of  sulphate  of  lime 
and  hydrochlorate  of  soda. 

MAYSFIELD  SPRING,  in  Williamson  County,  contains,  in 
20  fluid  ounces, — 


176  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

Sulphuretted  hydrogen,  6  cubic  inches. 

Hydrochlorate  of  soda,  6  grs. 

Sulphate  of  lime, 

TERRIE'S  SPRING,  in  Rutherford  County,  gives,  in  20 
fluid  ounces, — 

Sulphuretted  hydrogen,  10  cubic  inches. 

Sulphuric  acid,  5*00  grs. 

Hydrochloric  acid,  2 '21    " 

lime,  5-34    " 

DUNN'S  SPRING,  in  Davidson  County,  gives  sulphuretted 
hydrogen  and  hydrochlorate  of  soda. 

TYRE'S  SPRING,  in  same  county,  contains,  in  20  fluid 
ounces  of  water, — 

Sulphuretted  hydrogen,  3  cubic  inches. 

Carbonic  acid,  1      "     inch. 

Solid  matter,  30  grs. 

Sulphate  of  lime  and  magnesia,  carbonate  of  lime  and 
hydrochlorate  of  soda. 

FRENCH  LICK,  in  same  county,  gives  sulphuretted  hydro- 
gen, carbonic  acid,  hydrochloric  acid,  sulphuric  acid,  mag- 
nesia, and  hydrochlorate  of  soda. 

BROWN'S  SPRING  contains,  in  20  fluid  ounces, — 

Sulphuretted  hydrogen,  8  cubic  inches. 

Solid  matter,  3-25  grs. 

Composed  of  hydrochlorate  of  lime  and  soda. 


CAROLINA   SPRINGS.  177 


NORTH  CAROLINA  SPRINGS. 

EMMONS  seems  to  carefully  avoid  the  subject  of  mineral 
springs  in  his  report  on  the  Geology  of  North  Carolina  for 
1856.  There  are,  however,  some  springs  in  North  Caro- 
lina which  have  been  noticed.  Of  these,  the  most  celebrated 
are  the  WARM  and  HOT  SPRINGS,  in  Buncombe  County. 
They  are  on  French  Broad  River,  and  have  a  temperature 
from  94°  to  104°  Fahr.  The  region  about  these  springs  is 
said  to  be  beautiful. 

Professor  Smith's  analysis  gives  the  following  substances 
in  the  water : — muriates  of  magnesia  and  lime,  sulphate  of 
magnesia,  sulphate  of  lime  in  larger  proportions  than  any 
other  element.  The  waters  are  used  both  internally  and 
externally,  and  possess  great  importance  as  therapeutic 
agents;  but,  according  to  Dr.  Bell,  they  should  be  used 
with  discretion.  They  are  applicable  to  cases  of  palsy  and 
chronic  rheumatism,  rigidity  of  joints,  etc. 


SOUTH  CAROLINA  SPRINGS. 

ACCORDING  to  Tuomey,  "this  State  is  not  favorable  to 
mineral  springs,"  but  some  have  attained  notoriety. 

GLENN'S  SPRING,  in  Spartanburg  District,  has  waters 
charged  with  salts  of  lime.  Professor  Shepard  gives,  in 
these  waters,  chloride  of  calcium,  supercarbonate  of  lime, 
sulphate  of  lime,  and  magnesia,  alleging  that  "they  are 
strongly  impregnated  with  sulphur." 


178  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

WEST'S  SPRING,  near  this,  is  chalybeate. 

CHICK'S  SPRING,  near  Greenville,  resembles  Glenn's. 

In  Laurens  there  "  are  three  or  four  springs,  sulphur  and 
chalybeate,  in  hornblende  slate." 

There  is  a  spring  at  Estatoe  Mountains,  also  in  Abbiville 
District,  and  one  near  Parson's  Mountain. 

MURRAY'S  SPRING,  near  Pinson's  Ford,  is  charged  with 
salts  of  lime  and  iron. 

In  "  Flat  Woods,"  are  springs  containing  iron,  lime,  mag- 
nesia, and  sulphur. 

M.  Tuomey,  the  geologist  of  South  Carolina,  reports 
springs  worthy  of  notice,  as  saline,  sulphureous,  and  chaly- 
beate, which  are  "confined  to  certain  geological  formations." 


GEORGIA  SPRINGS. 

NOT  much  is  known  of  the  mineral  springs  of  this  State. 

The  INDIAN  SPRINGS,  in  Butts  County,  are  sulphureous. 
They  have  reputation,  according  to  Professor  Arnold,  of 
Savannah,  who  reports  to  Dr.  Bell  all  the  noticed  springs  of 
Georgia,  in  the  alleviation  of  rheumatic  diseases,  deranged 
conditions  of  stomach,  liver,  and  intestines,  of  the  order 
chronic. 

In  Merriwether  County  are  warm  springs,  which  contain 
salts  of  magnesia,  and  have  a  temperature  of  90°  Fahr. 
The  forte  of  their  powers  is  over  gout  and  rheumatism. 

In  Madison  County  are  the  MADISON  SPRINGS,  which  are 
pure  iron  waters,  and  useful  as  a  tonic.  The  claims  of  these 
are  warmly  urged  by  Professor  Arnold,  for  persons  seeking 
a  decidedly  marked  impression  from  change  of  climate,  with 
mineral  water  action. 

In  Cass  County  there  is  a  chalybeate  spring. 

In  Murray  County  several  springs  are  reported  by  Dr. 
Arnold,  and  reputed  to  possess  medicinal  powers.  No  ana- 
lysis yet  published. 


ALABAMA    SPRINGS.  179 


ALABAMA  SPRINGS. 

THE  geology  of  Alabama  is  principally  tertiary.  There 
are  several  springs  noticed  by  writers  on  the  subject ;  these 
are  saline  springs,  also  sulphuretted  hydrogen. 

TALLAHATTA  SPRING  contains  sulphur,  salts  of  iron,  lime, 
and  magnesia. 

BAILEY'S  SPRING  is  in  Lauderdale  County,  nine  miles 
from  Florence.  According  to  Dr.  Currey,  the  water  con- 
tains carbonic  acid  and  sulphuretted  hydrogen  gases,  car- 
bonates of  soda  and  magnesia,  oxide  of  iron,  with  carbonic 
acid,  chloride  of  sodium,  and  carbonate  of  potash.  Tuomey's 
analysis  shows  carbonates  of  iron  and  soda,  chloride  of 
sodium,  and  a  trace  of  carbonate  of  potash  and  sulphur ; 
said  to  be  curative  in  "dropsy,  scrofula,  and  dyspepsia,"  as 
an  alterative  and  gentle  tonic.  This  acidulo  sulphur -iron 
water  is  valuable. 

The  most  celebrated  are  "BLADON  SPRINGS."  The  ana- 
lysis of  their  waters  shows  the  presence  of  sulphuretted  hy- 
drogen and  carbonic  acid  gases,  chloride  of  sodium,  car- 
bonates of  soda,  lime,  and  magnesia,  oxide  of  iron,  sulphate 
of  lime,  silica,  and  alumina,  crenic  and  apocrenic  acid.  The 
carbonate  of  soda  is  the  leading  element  of  this  water.  It 
has  been  examined  by  Professor  Brumby,  and  has  repu- 
tation in  stomach  and  kidney  derangements.  These  springs 
are  in  Clarke  County,  near  Coffeeville. 

There  are  other  mineral  springs  in  this  State  reputed  to 
possess  medicinal  items. 


180  THE    MOUNTAIN. 


MISSISSIPPI  SPRINGS. 

IN  the  Geological  Report  of  Mississippi  for  185T,  by  L. 
Harper,  we  are  presented  with  some  facts  with  regard  to 
the  mineral  springs  of  that  State.  First  are  the  springs  of 
the  carboniferous  formations.  These  are  sulphur  and  chaly- 
beate, or  waters  containing  sulphate  of  iron  and  sulphuretted 
hydrogen,  and  depositing  yellow  hydrated  peroxide  of  iron. 
Other  springs  contain  iron,  lime,  magnesia,  alumina,  and 
carbonic  acid ;  and  one  is  reported  in  these  formations  con- 
taining sulphate  of  magnesia  and  iron,  with  chloride  of  so- 
dium. Near  Warren's  Mill,  on  Mackey's  Creek,  is  a  spring 
containing  sulphate  of  iron  and  sulphuretted  hydrogen.  In 
Tishamingo,  Itawamba,  Chickasaw,  and  Tippah  counties, 
there  are  springs  which  contain  the  salts  of  iron,  lime,  mag- 
nesia, alumina,  and  soda. 

"The  Eocene  formations  of  this  State  contain  more  mine- 
ral springs  than  any  of  the  other  rocks."  At  LAUDERDALE 
there  are  five  or  six  sulphur  and  chalybeate  springs.  They 
are  near  the  line  of  the  Eocene  and  Miocene  formations. 
These  are  copious  founts,  and,  according  to  Mr.  Harper, 
"  create,  morning  and  evening,  in  the  surrounding  region,  a 
a  sulphuric  atmosphere."*  Quitman's  Red  Sulphur  is  valu- 
able, containing  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  lime,  magnesia, 
chlorine,  and  apocrenic  acid.  Mineral  springs  are  also  re- 
ported in  the  Miocene  of  Mississippi. 

*  Harper  gives  a  minute  analysis  of  the  Lauderdale  Springs.  He 
represents  them  as  containing  of  volatile  ingredients,  sulphuretted 
hydrogen,  carbonic  acid,  oxygen,  nitrogen,  carburetted  hydrogen ; 
acids,  sulphuric,  carbonic,  silicic,  apocrenic,  also,  chlorine,  iodine, 
bromine,  inappreciable  (!!!)  bases,  iron,  lime,  magnesia,  potassa,  alu- 
mina, soda,  and  ammonia. 


MISSISSIPPI   SPRINGS.  181 

In  Yallabusha  County,  near  Grenada,  a  spring  is  reported 
containing  chlorine,  sulphuric  acid,  iron,  sulphate  of  alu- 
mina ;  used  in  diseases  of  the  bowels,  etc  In  Winston  and 
Nashoba  counties  there  are  chalybeate  and  sulphuretted 
hydrogen  springs.  In  Yazoo  County,  near  Yazoo  City, 
there  is  said  to  be  an  "alkaline  spring,"  and  one  containing 
sulphate  of  iron,  carbonic  acid,  chlorine,  alumina,  lime,  mag- 
nesia, and  soda.  In  La  Fayette,  Panola,  and  Calhoun 
counties,  chalybeates  are  said  to  exist.  In  Clarke  County, 
near  Chickasawhay  River,  and  also  near  "Enterprise," 
there  are  springs  containing  sulphate  of  iron  and  sulphu- 
retted hydrogen. 

"  COOPER'S  WELL"  is  twelve  miles  from  Jackson,  in  Hinds 
County.  "  It  comes  from  an  Artesian  well,  in  sand  rock, 
one  hundred  and  seven  feet  deep,  and  is  in  a  region  attrac- 
tive and  salubrious."  It  is  described  as  a  salt  iron  water,  and 
contains  oxygen,  nitrogen,  and  carbonic  acid  gases,  sulphate 
of  lime,  magnesia,  soda,  alumina,  and  potash,  chloride  of 
soda,  lime,  and  magnesia,  peroxide  of  iron,  and  crenate  of 
lime  and  silica.  Said  to  be  useful  as  iron  water,  in  abdomi- 
nal diseases  of  the  chronic  type,  as  chronic  diarrhoea,  dys- 
pepsia, renal  and  hepatic  diseases. 

Dr.  Bell  notices  another  spring  in  Mississippi,  which  has 
acquired  considerable  reputation  for  medicinal  qualities. 
This  is 

"  OCEAN  SPRING,"  in  Lynchburg,  Jackson  County,  which 
contains  carbonic  acid  and  sulphuretted  hydrogen  gases, 
chlorides  of  calcium,  sodium,  and  magnesium,  protoxide  of 
iron,  iodine,  organic  matter,  chloride  of  potassium  a  trace, 
and  alumina  a  trace.  Leading  elements,  chloride  of  sodium, 
sulphuretted  hydrogen,  and  iron.  "  The  iron  is  united  with 
carbonic  acid  and  sulphuretted  hydrogen."  The  medical 
properties  lean  to  the  values  of  iron  and  sulphuretted  hy- 
drogen, and  may  be  useful  in  chronic  derangements  in  which 
such  elements  are  indicated ;  and,  on  the  authority  of  Dr. 
Austin,  "they  have  been  successful  in  the  cure  of  dyspepsia, 
skin  diseases,  scrofula,  and  strumous  ophthalmia."  Accord- 

16 


182  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

ing  to  Dr.  Austin,  "the  springs  are  situated  among  pine 
hills,  five  miles  from  the  town  of  Biloxi,  and  half  a  mile 
from  the  east  shore  of  Biloxi  Bay,"  and  said,  by  its  special 
advocates,  to  be  attractive  and  beautiful. 


ARKANSAS  SPRINGS. 

THE  WASHITAW  HOT  SPRINGS  are  in  Hot  Spring  County, 
fifty  miles  south  of  Arkansas  River,  near  Washitaw  River. 
The  springs  are  at  the  foot  of  a  mountain  called  Hot  Moun- 
tain. The  streams  of  hot  water  are  numerous  and  of  con- 
siderable volume.  They  have  a  temperature,  according  to 
"  Schoolcraft,"  of  200°  P.  The  water  will  vesicate  the  sur- 
face, and  boil  an  egg  in  a  few  minutes,  and  is  described  as 
pure  and  clear. 

According  to  Judge  Watts,  the  springs  have  a  tempera- 
ture of  145°  F.  As  might  be  inferred,  the  waters  of  these 
springs  have  much  power  as  a  therapeutic  agent,  adminis- 
tered both  internally  and  externally.  They  are  used  in 
vapour,  hot  and  warm  baths,  by  cooling  down  the  tempera- 
ture, and,  from  well-known  laws  of  the  economy,  exert  their 
influence  as  those  classes  of  baths  are  known  to  do.  They 
contain  salts  of  lime  and  magnesia ;  but  a  minute  and  criti- 
cal analysis  is  wanting. 

The  special  advocates  of  these  waters  as  medicinal,  re- 
present them  as  almost  specifics  in  the  cure  of  "  the  whole 
order  of  chronic  diseases,"  including  scrofula,  gout,  rheuma- 
tism, also  the  consequences  or  sequelae  of  acute  diseases, 
vicious  drugging,  and  affections  of  the  skin. 

A  few  miles  from  Hot  Springs  there  is  an  Iron  Spring  of 
reputed  powers,  and  also  some  other  springs,  said  to  be  of 
the  carbonated  class;  but  the  springs  of  real  significance 


ARKANSAS    SPRINGS.  183 

are  the  thermal  or  hot  springs  of  this  curious  region.  Mr. 
Featherstonehaugh,  the  geologist,  reports  these  waters  to 
emerge  from  a  red  sandstone  formation,  which  he  designates 
"OLD  RED."  The  numerous  springs  flow  into  one  stream, 
which  retains  its  heat  for  a  great  distance  from  the  heads  of 
the  springs. 

The  waters,  through  the  intelligent  notices  of  Southern 
physicians  and  others,  have  attained  great  and  just  celebrity  in 
a  large  class  of  diseases, — waiving  the  question  of  their 
being  "absolute  specifics  in  the  whole  class  of  chronic 
diseases." 

They  belong  to  the  celebrated  order  of  thermal  waters  of 
Europe;  Carlsbad,  Baden-Baden,  Wisbaden,  and  Teplitz, 
in  Bohemia.  These  have  long  enjoyed  great  reputation  as 
bathing  waters,  also  for  internal  use  in  a  variety  of  diseases, 
skin  and  joint  affections,  chronic  rheumatism,  and  gout, 
chronic  skin  diseases,  chronic  derangements  of  the  glands, 
and  certain  nervous  affections.  The  waters  of  Washitaw 
Springs  contain  an  azotized  or  organic  substance.  This,  as 
has  been  already  noticed,  is  common  with  other  hot  springs 
in  the  United  States.  The  vapor  bathing  of  these  springs 
is  highly  spoken  of  by  Dr.  Bell  and  others. 


FLORIDA  SPRINGS. 

THE  mineral  springs  of  Florida  are  spoken  of  by  some 
writers,  but  few  authentic  details  given. 

Near  Tampa  there  is  a  SULPHUR  SPRING,  said  to  be 
"white  sulphur."  There  is  also  at  the  MAGNOLIA  SPRINGS, 
which  are  said  to  be  sulphureous,  a  winter  retreat  for  the 
sick.  A  few  more  springs  of  the  same  class  are  mentioned 
in  this  region. 


184  THE   MOUNTAIN. 


CANADA  SPRINGS. 

HAVING  noticed  the  most  prominent  mineral  springs  of 
a  number  of  the  United  States,  it  may  be  as  well  to  finish 
here  the  record,  as  far  as  the  Eastern  side  of  the  continent 
is  concerned,  by  some  account  of  the  springs  of  Canada,  be- 
longing to  that  class. 

In  the  Report  of  Sir  William  E.  Logan,  Provincial  Geo- 
logist, and  his  assistant,  Sterry  Hunt,  of  the  Survey  of  Ca- 
nada, (for  1857,)  many  mineral  springs  are  registered  and 
described.  It  appears  that  the  great  palaeozoic  basin  of 
Canada  is  divided  into  two  secondary  basins  by  an  axis  ex- 
tending from  Daschambault,  on  the  St.  Lawrence,  in  a  di- 
rection west  to  Lake  Champlain.  The  eastern  part  is 
affected  by  undulations  and  different  kinds  of  disturbances, 
and  is  the  region  already  noticed  as  being  the  site  of  nearly 
all  the  mineral  springs  of  Canada;  the  western  or  undis- 
turbed basin  having  but  few  medicated  waters.  Hunt 
arranges  the  waters  in  two  classes,  "neutral  and  alkaline;11 
the  first  with  chlorides  of  magnesium,  calcium,  sodium ;  and 
the  second,  all  of  these  earthy  bases  in  the  form  of  carbon- 
ates and  silicates,  the  water  being  alkaline  from  the  pre- 
sence of  carbonate  of  soda.  The  few  waters  of  the  "upper 
Silurian  are  all  neutral,  as  also  those  from  the  limestone  of 
lower  part  of  lower  silurian;  while  the  alkaline  waters 
characterize  the  schistose  strata  which  constitute  its  upper 
portion."  The  schists  of  "Hudson  River  group17  are 
"argillaceous,  the  analysis  showing  them  to  be  of  Feld- 
spathic  rocks,  containing  3  or  400ths  of  alkalies,  which  they 
slowly  give  up  to  the  decomposing  action  of  infiltrating 
waters. "  In  this  way  the  neutral  waters  of  the  underlying 
limestone  have  their  earthy  chlorides  decomposed,  and  are 
converted  into  alkaline  waters,  which  are  still  strongly  sa- 


CANADA   SPRINGS.  185 

line.  Another  class  of  alkaline  waters,  with  alkaline  car- 
bonates and  silicates,  have  a  small  portion  of  common  salt, 
derived  from  argillaceous  strata,  but  no  connection  with 
limestone.  Such  are  the  springs  of  Ours,  of  the  grand  coteau 
of  Chambly,  and  some  of  the  waters  of  Nicolet.  About 
this  place,  six  springs  issue  from  the  schists  of  Hudson  River 
group,  along  same  line  of  disturbance,  the  whole  within  dis- 
tance of  three  or  four  leagues.  Of  these,  two  are  strongly 
saline  and  neutral;  two  others  saline,  but  alkaline;  the 
other  two  characterized  by  predominance  of  alkaline  car- 
bonates ;  the  last  from  schists,  the  former  from  limestone. 
There  are  two  strong  saline  neutral  waters  in  West  Ca- 
nada. One  is  at  "BOWMAN'S  MILL,"  the  spring  being 
copious,  with  temperature  of  50°,  which  is  perhaps  above 
the  mean.  The  waters  are  highly  saline,  very  bitter,  almost 
acrid  when  concentrated,  depositing  by  boiling,  carbonates 
of  lime  and  magnesia,  a  little  strontia,  traces  of  iron,  bro- 
mine, and  iodine.  Analysis  of  1000  parts  of  this  water: — 

Chloride  of  sodium,  18-9158 

Chloride  of  calcium,  IT '5315 

Chloride  of  magnesium,  9-5437 

Bromide  of  sodium,  '2482 

Iodine,  -0008 

Carbonate  of  lime,  -0411 

Carbonate  of  magnesia,  -0221 
Salts  of  strontia,  potash,  and  iron,  traces, 


46-3038 

The  spring  at  Whitley 's  issues  from  Trenton  limestone,  (No. 
2)  in  the  Township  of  Hallo  well.  There  are  two  salt  wells  on 
the  land  of  Amos  Hubbs,  with  chlorides,  bromine,  and  iodine. 
At  St.  Genevieve,  on  Bastican  River,  there  are  several 
springs  issuing  from  the  lower  limestone,  strongly  saline 
and  neutral ;  there  being  two  quantitative  analyses,  the  first 
on  the  land  of  Olivier  Trudel,  of  Riviere  Yeillethe.  The 

16* 


186  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

spring  has  abundance  of  water,  with  bubbles  of  sulphuretted 
hydrogen;  also,  strongly  saline,  containing  quantities  of 
earthy  chlorides  and  carbonates,  but  no  sulphates;  1000 
parts  of  this  water  contain, — 

Chloride  of  sodium, 
Chloride  of  potassium, 
Chloride  of  calcium, 
Chloride  of  magnesium, 
Bromide  of  sodium, 
Iodide  of  sodium, 
Carbonate  of  lime, 
Carbonate  of  magnesia, 

20-9981 

At  the  ferry,  opposite  the  church  of  St.  Genevieve,  is  a 
spring  containing  carburetted  hydrogen,  also,  with  largest 
amounts  of  iodides  of  any  waters  in  the  Province ;  1000 
parts  of  this  water  contain, — 

Chloride  of  sodium, 
Chloride  of  calcium, 
Chloride  of  magnesium, 
Bromide  of  sodium, 
Iodide  of  sodium, 
Carbonate  of  lime, 
Carbonate  of  magnesia, 

13-1400 

All  these  waters  contain  small  portions  of  oxide  of  iron, 
silica,  and  alumina.  "Any  water  with  excess  of  hydro- 
chloric acid,  gives  precipitates  of  alumina,  with  oxide  of 
iron,  and  phosphoric  acid." 

Berthier,  in  Parish  of  Berthier,  (Leinster,)  is  a  copious 
saline  spring,  with  bubbles  of  inflammable  gas;  waters  neu- 
tral, with  small  portion  of  earthy  chlorides ;  bromine,  (con- 


CANADA   SPRINGS.  187 

siderable,)  iodine,  not  so  much.  Near  this  is  a  slightly 
chalybeate  spring,  which  can  scarcely  be  called  a  mineral 
water. 

In  RAWDON  TOWNSHIP  there  are  two  springs,  both  of 
which  are  alkaline,  and  the  first  a  water  containing  earthy 
and  alkaline  carbonates,  with  alkaline  chlorides,  and  small 
portions  of  sulphates,  borates,  and  a  trace  of  bromine,  but 
no  iodine.  The  second  spring  is  strongly  saline,  and  dis- 
tinctly alkaline  to  the  taste.  Plantagenet  new  saline  springs, 
neutral,  strongly  saline,  carbonates  small,  earthy  chlorides 
strong,  also  iodine  and  bromine. 

In  JOLY  TOWNSHIP  there  is  an  interesting  spring  on  the 
banks  of  the  Pouisseau  Magnea,  giving  three  or  four  gallons 
a  minute  of  water,  with  sulphur  taste  and  smell,  depositing 
a  "  white  matter,"  and  exhibiting  the  "  purple  vegetation 
generally  met  with  in  sulphur  waters."  Temperature,  46°  F. ; 
air,  52°  ;  also  strongly  saline ;  when  concentrated,  very  alka- 
line and  salt  to  the  taste.  Analysis  of  1000  parts  of  this 
water  give, — 

• 

Chloride  of  sodium,  0*3818 

Chloride  of  potassium,  '0067 

Sulphate  of  soda,  -0215 

Carbonate  and  borate  of  soda,  *2301 

Carbonate  of  lime,  *0620 

Carbonate  of  magnesia,  •025T 

Silica  and  alumina,  traces, 

0-1523 
It  contains,  also,  boracic  acid,  and  sulphuretted  hydrogen. 

Mineral  springs  are  rare,  as  observed,  in  the  undisturbed 
portion  of  the  western  basin  of  Canada.  There  are  some 
springs  of  local  reputation  in  the  Township  of  Scarborough. 
They  contain  only  a  little  sulphate  of  lime  and  traces  of 
chlorides. 

In  Toronto  is  also  a  well  of  similar  composition ;  also  a 


188  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

spring  at  Spadina,  remarkable  for  the  quantity  of  lime  de- 
posited. There  is  also  a  spring  in  the  village  of  Brompton 
"  regarded  as  mineral,  with  smoky  taste ;  the  waters  of 
which  become  putrid  and  sulphureous  in  closed  bottles. " 

Another  at  Brompton  contains  a  small  quantity  of  chlo- 
ride and  sulphate  of  lime,  magnesia,  and  alkalies.  Perhaps 
none  of  these  springs  rise  from  the  "Lower  Silurian,"  but 
"owe  their  mineral  contents  to  clays  and  muds,  covering  the 
palaeozoic  rocks." 

There  are  also  a  number  more  springs  enumerated  by  Dr. 
Bell  and  others,  in  Canada,  with  analyses  proximate  and 
otherwise.  The  following  are  the  most  conspicuous  and 
important  noticed  by  writers  on  the  subject. 

TUSCARORA  ACID  SPRINGS.  These  springs  are  in  the 
Township  of  Tuscarora,  twenty  miles  south  of  Pass  Dover. 
They  contain,  according  to  Mr.  Hunt,  the  sulphates  of  iron, 
lime,  magnesia,  alumina,  and  a  large  amount  of  free  sul- 
phuric acid.  It  is  asserted  by  geologists  that  "  this  spring 
is  in  the  same  geological  relationship  in  which  the  same  cha- 
racter of  springs  in  New  York  are  found."  It  has  also  the 
smell  and  taste  of  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  with  an  extremely 
acid  and  styptic  taste. 

There  are  several  smaller  basins  in  the  neighborhood  with 
the  same  character  of  waters.  They  all  contain  sulphates 
of  potash,  soda,  lime,  magnesia,  iron,  and  alumina,  and  sul- 
phuric acid  in  quantities. 

A  few  miles  south  of  Port  Dover,  on  Lake  Erie,  is  CHAR- 
LOTTEVILLE  SULPHUR  SPRING.  Temperature,  45°  Fahr. 
The  water  is  clear,  with  a  sulphureous  taste  and  a  strong 
sulphur  odor,  and  contains  sulphates  of  soda,  potash,  lime, 
and  magnesia,  chlorides  of  magnesium,  carbonate  of  lime, 
magnesia,  and  iron,  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  and  carbonic 
acid.  The  sulphuretted  hydrogen  is  in  the  quantity  of  26 '8 
cubic  inches  to  the  gallon.  (Hunt.)  „ 

ANCASTER  SPRING  is  near  the  village  of  Ancaster.  It  is 
a  salt  spring,  with  a  temperature  of  48°  Fahr.,  the  water 
containing  chloride  of  sodium,  chloride  of  potassium,  chlo- 


CANADA   SPRINGS.  189 

rides  of  magnesium  and  calcium,  bromide  of  magnesia,  and 
sulphate  of  lime.  The  leading  elements  are  chlorides  of 
sodium,  magnesium,  and  calcium.  (Hunt.) 

The  CALEDONIA  SPRINGS  are  about  forty  miles  from  Mon- 
treal, near  the  Ottowa  River.  There  are  four  founts,  three 
known  as  Saline  Spring,  Gas  Spring,  and  White  Sulphur 
Spring. 

GAS  SPRING  has  a  temperature  of  44°  F.,  and  is  highly 
charged  with  carburetted  hydrogen,  also  containing  chlo- 
rides of  sodium  and  potash,  sulphates  of  potash,  bromide  of 
sodium,  iodide  of  sodium,  (??)  carbonates  of  soda,  lime, 
magnesia,  iron,  and  manganese,  with  alumina,  silica,  and 
carbonic  acid.  This  extensive  catalogue  of  ingredients  em- 
braces half  the  pharmacopoeia,  and,  like  some  of  the  more 
ancient  formulae  or  medical  prescriptions,  contains  a  small 
touch  of  everything.  A  SAFE  WATER  under  all  circum- 
stances, as  a  widely  scattering  shot  will  certainly  hit  some- 
thing. 

This  is  Gas  Spring,  (certainly  gaseous  !  !) 

SALINE  SPRING  is  said  to  be  similar  to  the  one  last  de- 
scribed in  chemical  composition  ;  temperature  being  45°  F. 
Differs  from  last  in  quantity  of  free  carbonic  acid,  otherwise 
qualitative  analysis  same  as  above. 

SULPHUR  SPRING.  This  spring  is  in  the  immediate  vicinity 
of  the  last,  and  contains  a  smaller  quantity  of  sulphur,  "  a 
trace  of  sulphur  rather  than  a  quantitative  return."  It 
also  contains  carbonates  of  soda  and  magnesia,  with  traces 
of  iron,  iodine,  and  silica.  The  leading  element  is  the  soda, 
the  water  being  described  as  "strongly  alkaline."  There  is 
an  intermitting  spring  a  few  miles  from  the  others  mentioned. 
The  water  contains  chlorine,  bromine,  and  iodine,  with  po- 
tassium, sodium,  calcium,  and  magnesium,  some  of  these  ex- 
isting as  chlorides,  with  traces  of  iron  and  alumina. 

At  ST.  CATHARINES,  Canada  West,  there  is  an  Artesian 
well  of  most  miraculous  composition  and  consequent  power. 
The  water  has  more  solid  contents  than  fluid,  and  is  mani- 
festly an  extraordinary  product  of  Nature.  Its  "  table  of 


190  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

forces  is  a  little  stronger  than  any  four  horses,"  and  is 
bountifully  brought  out  by  the  highly  critical,  scientific,  and 
veracious  author  of  Robinson  Crusoe,  endorsed  by  three 
Mud  Angels.  It  is  bottled,  and  can  be  had  in  places  for  sale, 
Said  to  contain  chlorides  of  sodium,  magnesium,  calcium, 
protochloride  of  iron,  sulphate  of  lime,  carbonate  of  lime 
and  magnesia,  bromide  and  iodide  of  magnesia,  silica  and 
alumina;  solid  contents  in  16  ounces  of  water,  10  J  ounces 
of  salts :  chloride  of  calcium  being  present.  For  medical 
properties,  see  Paracelsus,  on  the  virtue  of  chicken  fat,  and 
Bulgarius,  on  the  final  cause  of  the  creation  of  soft  soap. 

Seventeen  miles  from  Montreal,  on  the  St.  Lawrence,  are 
the  VERENNES  SPRINGS.  "  There  are  two  springs,  saline  and 
gas,  near  together,  both  containing  chloride,  iodide,  and  bro- 
mide of  soda,  carbonates  of  soda,  baryta,  strontia,  lime,  mag- 
nesia, andiron."  The  Gas  Spring  evolves  carburetted  hy- 
hydrogen,  with  temperature  of  the  water,  46°  to  47°  Fahr. 

CAXTON  SPRING  is  in  Caxton  Township,  on  the  Yanna- 
chicke  River,  near  the  same  named  village.  It  is  a  saline 
chalybeate  water,  with  large  quantities  of  carburetted  hydro- 
gen gas  escaping. 

ST.  LEON  SPRING  is  a  salt  iron  spring  also,  with  large  quan- 
tities of  carburetted  hydrogen  gas  escaping  from  the  water. 


SPRINGS    OF   THE    INTERIOR.  191 


MINERAL  SPRINGS  OF  THE  INTERIOR  AND 

WESTERN  SIDE  OF  THE  CONTINENT  OF 

NORTH  AMERICA. 

THE  vast  region  stretching  from  the  Mississippi  channel 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  from  the  reports  of  travelers,  pos- 
sesses a  large  number  of  springs,  mineral  and  thermal. 
These  are  of  an  extensive  variety  and  interesting  character, 
but  the  information  with  regard  to  them  is  meagre,  there 
being  but  few  analyses  of  contents,  and  the  accounts  of  ex- 
plorers, who  were  intent  upon  other  purposes,  are  necessa- 
rily vague  and  unspecified. 

The  more  recent  Reports  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  Railroad 
parties  have  given  much  additional  information  with  regard 
to  the  geography,  geology,  and  climatology  of  this  part  of 
the  continent;  but  few  of  the  mineral  springs  have  attracted 
much  attention,  or  been  the  subject  of  careful  chemical  tests 
or  quantitative  analyses.  Enough,  however,  has  been  re- 
ported to  stimulate  inquiry,  and  warrant  the  conviction  that 
we  have  as  yet  scarcely  an  intimation  of  the  real  extent  of 
our  resources  in  this  department.  For  full  details  in  this 
interesting  field,  see  the  valuable  Reports  of  Fremont,  Stans- 
bury,  Gunnison,  and  others,  which  have  been  published  for 
some  time ;  also,  the  splendidly-illustrated  Reports  of  the 
Pacific  Railroad  Routes,  which  have  recently  been  given 
to  the  world. 

On  the  Southern  line,  or  the  Pimas  villages,  Gila,  and 
Rio  Grande  Route,  near  the  thirty-second  parallel  of  north 
latitude,  Lieutenant  Parke  has  reported  mineral  springs. 
On  Buenaventura  River  there  is  a  spring  which  deposits  a 
large  quantity  of  sulphur.  It  gave  a  temperature  of  64°  F., 
the  air  being  55°  F.  "Along  with  the  spring  is  an  over- 


192  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

flow  of  bitumen,  covering  the  soil  twenty  feet  around  with  a 
depth  of  two  feet."  "  COOK'S  SPRING,  at  foot  of  Picacho,  is 
a  pool  of  sulphur  water  forty  feet  wide." 

Aqua  Caliente  is  a  spring  of  remarkably  warm  water,  its 
temperature  being  130°  F.  The  water  is  full  of  carbonic 
acid  gas  bubbles,  and  flows  from  the  spring  in  a  large  body, 
depositing  quantities  of  lime.  According  to  Parke,  "were 
it  situated  within  the  limits  of  civilization,  it  might  be  made 
invaluable  for  medical  and  economical  uses."  "The  water 
at  Vallicitas  is  hard  and  sulphureous."  Other  waters  in 
this  region  are  noticed,  which  contain  mineral  substances,  as 
in  the  valley  of  Mimbres  River,  and  neighborhood  of  San 
Diego  and  Fort  Yuma. 


NEBRASKA   AND   OREGON   SPRINGS.  193 


NEBRASKA  AND  OREGON  SPRINGS. 

NEAR  Fort  Laramie  there  is  a  thermal  spring,  described 
by  Fremont  and  Stansbury.  Its  temperature  is  14°  F.,  but 
nothing  is  said  of  the  mineral  contents  of  its  water.  The 
spring  is  between  the  north  fork  of  the  Platte  and  Laramie 
rivers,  in  Nebraska  Territory. 

Not  far  from  the  Oregon  line  of  Nebraska,  in  Sweetwater 
River  valley,  there  are  ponds  of  saline  water.  This  is  the 
region  of  salt  plains,  the  waters  being  highly  charged  with 
carbonate  of  soda,  sulphate  of  soda,  and  chloride  of  sodium. 

SODA,  or  BEER  SPRINGS,  are  in  the  northern  part  of  Ore- 
gon Territory,  on  Bear  River.  The  region  is  full  of  saline 
springs,  Bear  River  finally  discharging  itself  into  Great  Salt 
Lake.  The  temperature  of  the  water  is  from  56  to  6*7°  F. 
They  are  in  42°  40'  north  latitude,  111°  46'  west  longitude. 
According  to  Fremont,  they  contain  sulphate  of  magnesia 
and  lime,  carbonate  of  magnesia  and  lime,  chloride  of 
sodium,  lime  and  magnesia,  with  vegetable  extractive 
matter.  The  leading  chemical  substance  is  sulphate  of 
magnesia ;  it  also  contains  carbonic  acid  in  large  quantities. 
There  is  a  large  number  of  springs  here  of  this  character, 
and  the  region  is  described  by  Fremont  as  containing  many 
curious  and  peculiar  features,  and  the  different  springs  show 
some  strange  forms  and  remarkable  characters. 

Near  the  Beer  Spring  is  Steamboat  Spring.  "  This  is  a 
jet  of  water  thrown  from  the  surface,  accompanied  by  a  sub- 
terranean noise."  The  water  is  thermal,  having  a  tempera- 
ture of  81°  F. 

The  "taste  is  pungent,  disagreeable,  and  metallic,  leaving 
a  burning  effect  on  the  tongue."  It  contains  carbonate  of 
lime  and  magnesia,  with  oxide  of  iron,  silica,  and  alumina. 
The  rocks  are  not  critically  described  by  Fremont,  who 


194  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

speaks  in  general  terms  of  a  "carbonate  of  lime  and  oxide 
of  iron ;  compact  rocks  of  a  dark-blue  color,  and  strata  of 
heavy,  hard,  micaceous  basalt,  having  a  bright  metallic 
lustre  when  broken."  The  springs  are  represented  by  him 
as  very  numerous,  and  of  a  diversified  character,  but,  as  a 
general  thing,  thermal  and  saline. 

In  the  recent  Reports  of  Railroad  Surveys,  there  is  a 
thermal  spring  spoken  of  in  Des  Chutes  Yalley,  Oregon 
Territory.  The  spring  is  said  to  "give  a  peculiar  character 
to  the  region  around  for  some  miles  in  extent."  The  tem- 
perature of  the  water  is  145°  P. ;  and  the  basin  into  which 
it  flows  is  represented  as  "being  filled  with  floating  jelly- 
like  masses  of  silica." 

At  Pike's  Peak  are  located  the  carbonated  or  boiling 
springs,  which  are  6350  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  in 
latitude  38°  25',  longitude  105°  22'  west.  The  springs 
here  are  large  and  beautiful,  boiling  and  bubbling  with  the 
quantity  of  gas  contained.  They  are  acidulous  and  much 
impregnated ;  have  a  temperature  of  54 "3°  P. ;  others  57°  P. ; 
and  contain  carbonate  of  lime  and  magnesia,  sulphate  of 
lime,  chloride  of  calcium  and  magnesium,  silica,  and  vege- 
table matter.  Carbonate  of  lime  is  the  leading  element  of 
the  mineral  substances. 


SALT   LAKE   REGION  SPRINGS.  195 


SALT  LAKE  REGION  SPRINGS. 

UTAH,  in  its  history,  as  far  as  science  has  yet  recorded  its 
wonders  in  the  domain  of  nature,  or  common  fame  reported 
its  political  and  spiritual  phases  of  development,  (only  calcu- 
lable by  the  philosophy  of  the  extreme  ancients,)  is  to  the 
illuminated  side  of  the  continent  a  region  of  perpetual  fable. 
It  would  seem,  in  its  geological  relationship,  from  the  heat 
of  its  rocks  and  waters,  not  far  from  the  region  of  original 
fire  ;  still  closer,  in  the  estimation  of  the  Christian  world,  to 
the  region  of  original  sin,  from  the  ardency  of  its  social  code, 
and  the  anomalously  distracted  religion  and  morality  which 
prevails  in  the  only  effort  which  this  progressive  American 
has  as  yet  made  to  reclaim  these  wonderful  deserts,  humanize 
the  wilderness,  and  assert  the  presence  of  man  on  a  spot  of 
the  earth's  surface  apparently,  from  physical  limitations  and 
spiritual  perversions,  accursed  of  the  living  God.  It  is  thus 
that  the  yarn  of  the  tourist  through  this  peculiar  region,  in 
the  report  of  its  natural  history,  seems  Munchausen,  roman- 
tic, and  impossible  ;  while  the  historian  of  the  present  ver- 
sion of  the  social  contract,  or  organization  of  society  pa- 
triarchal, at  that  point  of  the  globe,  is  as  inconceivable  and 
fanciful  in  his  narrative  as  the  story  of  the  fictitious  common- 
wealth of  the  "NEW  ATLANTIS,"  or  the  wonders  of  the 

"ClTY  OF  THE  SUN." 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  a  more  critical  exploration  of 
the  geology  of  this  wonderful  region  has  not  been  made. 
The  precise  substratum  or  rock-structure  of  the  valleys, 
mountains,  and  deserts  of  the  territory  of  Utah,  has  not 
been  made  the  subject  of  scientific  dissection.  It  is  thus 
that  the  origin  of  the  calorification  and  mineralization  of 
the  innumerable  springs  of  this  region,  charged  with  all  the 
salts  of  the  pharmacopeia,  is  the  subject  of  distant  and  sha- 


196  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

dowy  speculation.  A  few  meagre  and  fragmentary  sections 
of  its  rocks,  vaguely  and  unsatisfactorily  described, — a  few 
specimens  without  intelligible  association,  with  the  general 
statement  that  the  region  is  primitive  and  volcanic,  is  all  that 
has  been  reached  in  the  investigation  of  the  mineral  compo- 
sition of  this  part  of  the  continent.  Thus  it  is  stated  that 
the  Hot  Springs,  near  Bear  River,  issue  from  between  "  dif- 
ferent strata  of  conglomerate  and  limestone,"  which  exceed- 
ingly precise  description  leaves  the  geologist  free  sea-room 
to  imagine  the  origin  of  their  heat  and  mineral  contents ; 
again,  "they  gush  out  together  beneath  a  conglomerate  con- 
sisting principally  of  fragments  of  grayish-blue  limestone, 
efflorescing  a  salt  upon  the  surface,  the  rocks  in  the  bed  be- 
ing colored  with  a  red  deposit."  Again,  "the  strata  are 
here  contorted,  and  in  some  places  nearly  perpendicular, 
whilst  not  far  away  there  are  piles  of  scoriaceous  basalt." 
The  philosophy  of  the  predominance  of  volcanisms  and 
other  isms  in  this  department  is  left  in  the  interesting  limbo 
of  theory.  One  astonishing  fact  which  stares  out  upon 
every  traveler  is,  that  here  is  a  region  in  which  there  pre- 
vails a  multitudinous  class  of  the  waters  of  the  earth  in  a 
most  extraordinary  state  of  thermal  and  mineral  combina- 
tion almost  without  a  parallel  on  any  other  part  of  its 
surface. 

In  the  vicinity  of  Salt  Lake  City  there  are  a  number  of 
thermal  springs. 

WARM  SULPHUR  SPRING,  near  the  city,  contains  sulphu- 
retted hydrogen,  chloride  of  calcium,  sulphate  of  soda,  chlo- 
ride of  sodium,  carbonates  of  lime  and  magnesia.  It  is  used 
by  the  inhabitants  of  Deseret,  and  reputed  by  them  to  pos- 
sess remarkable  properties,  almost  the  power  of  the  restora- 
tion of  perpetual  youth.  "  They  make  a  boast  of  their  good 
health,  and  attribute  it  to  bathing  in  those  springs ;  many 
that  I  saw  declaring  that  they  came  to  the  Valley  perfect 
cripples,  and  were  restored  to  their  health  and  agility  by 
frequenting  them. " 

One  of  the  wonderful  thermal  springs  of  the  valley  is  a 


SALT    LAKE    REGION    SPRINGS.  197 

white  sulphur  water  of  the  temperature  of  102°  Fahr.,  with 
a  volume  "  the  thickness  of  a  man's  body,  which  has  already 
been  brought  into  the  town  for  the  purpose  of  bathing,  and 
all  have  learned  the  habit  of  indulging  in  it." 

HOT  SPRINGS,  also  in  the  neighborhood,  have  a  very  high 
temperature.  Their  water  contains  chlorides  of  sodium,  mag- 
nesium, and  calcium,  sulphate  and  carbonate  of  lime,  and  have 
a  temperature  of  128°  Fahr. 

The  WARM  FOUNTAINS  are  very  numerous,  and  situated 
near  the  Lake.  They  contain  chloride  of  sodium  in  excess, 
also  sulphates  of  lime  and  magnesia ;  and,  according  to 
Lieutenant  G-unnison,  "they  deposit  gypsum  and  other  sul- 
phates, the  waters  being  of  a  delightful  temperature  for 
bathing." 

Some  miles  north  of  Salt  Lake  City  are  the  HOT  IRON 
SPRINGS.  They  are  called  RED  SPRINGS,  from  the  iron  which 
they  deposit.  There  are  a  number  of  these  springs  at  one 
place,  some  with  a  temperature  of  136°  Fahr.  The  chemi- 
cal contents  of  the  waters  are  iron,  lime,  magnesia,  sodium, 
and  alumina.  The  predominating  ingredients  are  peroxide 
of  iron  and  carbonate  of  lime. 

At  the  northern  end  of  the  lake  are  a  number  of  salt  and 
sulphur  springs,  which  are  also  strongly  impregnated. 

The  BEAR  RIVER  HOT  SPRINGS,  described  by  Gunnison, 
are  near  the  river  of  that  name.  One  of  the  springs  is  a 
salt  spring ;  the  other  a  hot  sulphur  spring.  The  spring 
that  contains  salt  is  a  strong  solution,  and  deposits  it 
upon  the  surface.  The  temperature  of  these  springs  is 
134°  Fahr.,  and,  according  to  Fremont,  they  are  in  latitude 
41°  42' ;  longitude  112°  W.  Salt  springs  are  numerous 
around  the  northern  end  of  this  lake. 

WARM  SALINE  SPRINGS  are  described  by  Stansbury  as 
possessing  a  temperature  of  14  to  84°  Fahr.  "  They  break 
out  of  the  mountain  at  the  northern  end  of  the  Lake."  The 
western  shore  of  Salt  Lake  presents  numerous  springs  of 
salt  and  sulphureous  waters,  together  with  springs  of  fresh 
pure  water. 

17* 


198  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

SPRING  VALLEY  derives  its  name  from  its  abundance  of 
springs,  which  are  mostly  thermal  or  saline  ;  many  of  them 
being  a  saturated  solution  of  common  salt,  and  having  a 
temperature  of  10  to  80°  Fahr. 

Near  the  mouth  of  the  river  Jordan  are  the  Warm 
Springs  of  Lake  Utah.  The  water  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake, 
according  to  Fremont,  is  a  "  saturated  solution  of  common 
salt. "  The  water  is  perfectly  limpid,  and  has  a  specific  gravity 
of  1*110.  It  contains,  besides  chloride  of  sodium,  sul- 
phate of  soda,  chloride  of  magnesium,  and  chloride  of  cal- 
cium. 

Northwest  of  BEER  SPRING,  and  230  miles  from  Fort 
Hall,  there  are  a  number  of  hot  springs.  They  emerge  from 
the  rocks  with  considerable  force,  and  have  a  temperature  of 
164°  Fahr.  They  contain  chloride  of  sodium,  sulphates  of 
soda  and  lime,  magnesia,  and  oxide  of  iron.  The  rocks  of 
the  neighborhood  seem  to  be  volcanic.  They  are  near  lati- 
tude 42°  10'  N.,  and  longitude  115°  10'  W. 

Northwest  of  Hot  Springs,  120  miles,  in  latitude  44°  11' 
N.,  and  longitude  111°  W.,  are  the  HOT  SPRINGS  OP  MAL- 
HEUR  RIVER.  Their  temperature  is  193°  Fahr.  They  are 
1880  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  and  are  strongly  charged 
with  common  salt. 

West  of  Malheur  River,  200  miles,  are  the  HOT  AND 
WARM  SPRINGS  OF  FALL  RIVER.  They  are  in  latitude  44° 
40'  N.,  and  121°  5'  W.  Some  of  these  springs  are  89°  F., 
others  being  134°  F.  The  region  here,  according  to  Fre- 
mont, exhibits  "  striking  features  of  volcanic  character." 

"  The  HOT  SPRINGS  OP  PYRAMID  LAKE,"  says  Fremont, 
"are  the  most  remarkable  of  all  the  western  mountain 
region.  The  water  boils  up  from  some  of  these  springs  like 
immense  caldrons,  sometimes  with  smoke  or  gas  escaping. 
The  water  is  clear,  and  has  a  temperature  of  208°  Fahr.  It 
is  strongly  impregnated  with  common  salt."  According  to 
Dr.  Bell,  the  temperature  of  some  of  these  springs  have 
scarcely  a  parallel  in  the  world.  They  resemble,  to  a  certain 
extent,  the  Great  Geyser,  the  Stokkr,  and  Spouting  Springs 


SALT   LAKE   REGION  SPRINGS.  199 

of  Reikum,  Reikeiavik,  and  the  hot  springs  of  Azores,  New 
Zealand,  and  Fejee  Islands,  both  in  temperature  and  chemi- 
cal contents."  These  springs  are  near  the  western  limits  of 
Utah.  Pyramid  Lake  is  but  a  short  distance  from  these 
boiling  springs. 


CALIFORNIA  SPRINGS. 

THE  HOT  SPRINGS  OF  SHASTY'S  PEAK  are  in  Tipper  Cali- 
fornia, west  of  the  foot  of  Shasty's  Peak.  The  water  is  hot 
enough  to  boil  an  egg.  The  peak  is  14,000  feet  high,  and 
the  whole  region  volcanic,  the  peak  itself  being  considered 
as  an  extinct  volcano.  The  spring  is  at  the  foot  of  the 
peak,  and  boils  up  among  the  rocks  to  the  height  of  two  or 
three  feet.  Near  this  peak  there  is  also  an  acid  iron  spring, 
containing  a  large  quantity  of  carbonic  acid  and  iron,  having 
an  agreeable  acidulous  taste,  mixed  with  the  taste  of  iron. 

In  the  desert  of  the  Colorado,  in  Southern  California, 
there  are  springs  described  by  Dr.  Bell,  who  quotes  Dr.  Le 
Conte,  as 

VOLCANIC  SPRINGS.  "  They  are  in  a  muddy  plain,  border- 
ing on  a  salt  lake."  Near  this  lake  there  are  numerous 
hills,  described  as  "  volcanic  mounds,  composed  of  lava  and 
pumice,  with  a  number  of  circular  caldrons  containing 
boiling  mud,  exhaling  vapor  as  steam,  sulphur,  and  sal 
ammoniac,  and  throwing  up  jets  of  salt  water.  Some  of 
them  are  surrounded  by  stalagmites  and  concretions  of  re- 
markable shape." 

"  Near  Vallecitas  there  are  mounds  of  cinder  and  pumice, 
evidently  volcanic.  Near  Fort  Yama  there  are  spouting 
springs.  The  region  here  has  suffered  from  earthquake 
action." 

Near  Warner's  Rancheria,  on  the  mountain  west  of  a 
desert  on  the  Colorado,  in  Southern  California,  there  is  a 


200  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

salt  sulphur  spring,  with  a  temperature  of  137°  Fahr., 
which  issues  from  a  granite  rock.  Of  the  chemical  compo- 
sition and  character  generally  not  much  has  been  said  or 
known. 

There  are  a  number  of  mineral  and  thermal  springs  in 
New  Mexico.  Thermal  and  sulphureous  waters  are  found 
near  the  river  Del  Norte,  some  miles  from  Santa  Fe. 


MERE  catalogues  are,  of  course,  always  intolerable,  and 
"dry  details,"  even  on  mineral  springs  and  waters  in  general, 
have  just  been  abundantly  demonstrated  to  be  among  the 
things  possible.  After  the  precipitant  recitation  of  the  water 
distribution  of  a  portion  of  North  America  just  attempted, 
will  not  the  beholder,  in  a  quiet  retrospection  of  the  field, 
be  struck  by  a  few  obvious  convictions,  and  among  them  will 
not  these  be  prominent  ?  If  water  is  a  good  thing,  if  it  be 
one  of  the  few  primeval  indispensables,  if  it  has  played  an 
important  part  in  the  past  experiences  of  the  planet,  and 
is  to  play  a  still  more  significant  agency  in  the  great  future 
mundane  programme  of  the  drama  of  time  and  space,  have 
not  the  sister  continents  been  bountifully  cared  for,  divinely 
apportioned  ?  What  means  this  intense  and  immense  com- 
munion of  the  land  and  the  sea,  this  prodigious  transporta- 
tion of  water  on  the  wings  of  the  wind,  these  rivers  of  air 
which  are  rivers  of  water,  those  mighty  Mississippis  and 
Amazons  pouring  back  the  deposits  of  aerial  currents  into 
the  great  ocean  reservoir  from  which  they  came  ?  A  signifi- 
cant fact  this  40-inch  precipitation  over  so  much  of  the  ex- 
posed side  of  a  world, — so  much  of  the  earth's  surface  thus 
made  alive  by  springs  of  water  of  every  order, — those  won- 
derful basins  of  wonderful  rivers,  what  means  this  array  of 
"water,  water  everywhere"?  Other  divisions  of  the  globe 
have  one  of  the  great  original  elements  in  excess, — as,  too 


THE   MOUNTAIN.  201 

much  fire  in  burning  deserts, — too  much  air,  monsoons,  si- 
roccos, and  tornadoes, — too  much  earth  in  vast  spaces  of 
dead  stone,  the  rugged  bones  of  the  world  projecting, — or  too 
much  water  in  paludal  spaces  unreclaimed.  But  on  these 
wonderful  Americas  see  the  harmonious  play  of  those  great 
old  creatures,  earth,  air,  fire,  and  water  !  By  a  closer  inspec- 
tion, see  also  the  list  of  medicated  waters,  fountains  of  healing 
forces, — the  earth,  the  water,  and  the  air  in  strange  commu- 
nion again.*  Is  this  another  cosmical  contract  on  the  ques- 
tion of  health  and  soundness  ?  Quantity  the  Infinite  cared 
not  for,  but  quality,  quality  1 !  must  play  a  more  refined  and 
delicate  part  in  the  onward  progression,  ultimation,  and  per- 
fection of  the  world.  Matter  was  great,  but  spirit  was 
greater;  organic  life  was  great,  but  CONSCIOUS  LIFE  WAS 
GREATER.  This  HIGHER  LIFE,  then,  seems  the  end  for  which 
the  lower  life  exists,  and  health  of  body  and  soul,  which  is  the 
harmonious  marriage  of  the  higher  and  the  lower,  is  the 
condition  of  true  ecstasy,  the  gorgeous  beatitude,  the  abso- 
lute perfection,  that  which  was  originally  pronounced  by 
God  himself  to  be  the  "all  good,  the  all  fair."  For  this 
triumphant  attitude  of  health,  for  this  strange  normality, 
this  miraculous  equipoise,  magazines  of  forces,  reservoirs  of 
power,  were  required  ;  and  hence  the  play  of  waters  mineral, 
thermal,  and  pure,  forms  an  integral  part  of  the  machinery 
of  the  life  of  all  things.  Without,  within  organic  bo- 

*  It  must  be  acknowledged  and  regretted  that  the  medical  pro- 
fession at  large  has  given  but  little  attention  to  the  subject  of  mineral 
springs.  Very  few  physicians  know  where  to  send  their  patients,  or 
have  detailed  information  sufficient  to  fill  the  indications  of  their  cases 
in  the  momentous  points  of  climate  and  water ;  and  especially  what 
instructions  to  give  them  when  the  last  prescription,  in  getting  clear 
of  troublesome  cases,  is  made,  "Go  to  the  springs."  Dr.  Bell's  valu- 
able little  work,  so  often  quoted,  and  from  which  so  much  important 
information  has  been  derived  in  this  synopsis,  fills  a  need  long  felt  by 
the  profession.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  work  on  the  "Mineral 
Springs  of  the  World,"  promised  by  this  faithful  laborer  in  the  litera- 
ture and  science  of  medicine,  will  soon  appear,  and  be  fully  appre- 
ciated, at  least  by  his  professional  brethren. 


202  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

dies,  life  plays  beneath  the  surface  or  "  moves  upon  the 
face  of  the  waters."  Hence  the  medicine  of  springs.  The 
Americas  have  an  immeasurable  supply  of  all  waters.  * 
Great  hint  of  Nature ;  the  laws  of  the  physical  world  point 
out  a  fate  for  man  commensurate  with  the  force  of  water 
on  earth.  All  that  waters  (steam,  it  must  not  be  forgotten, 
is  a  union  of  the  two  old  friends,  fire  and  water)  can  do,  is 
to  be  done  for  humanity  on  this  theatre,  and  hence  the  true 
significance  of  the  great  water  arrangements  of  the  Americas 
to  mankind. 

Ittifi  f'Dfriloi  WO;\L  i:  *{aiij  j«ij;;i  •!  !  vjii;-;;,)  .v:  '.;,- 

*  One  might  readily  think,  from  observation  of  his  habits,  that  the 
Yankee  animal  had  failed  to  discover  the  meaning  of  the  water 
arrangement,  amidst  which  he  lives,  and  had  arrived  at  the  conclu- 
sion that  whisky  was  the  greatest  element  of  the  world;  and  that  if 
rum  is  not  the  true  medium  of  his  existence,  his  body  is  the  true 
medium  of  rum,  and  hence,  that  the  vast  supplies  of  water  prepared 
for  him  are  an  intimation  pointing  to  the  conclusion  that  corre- 
sponding quantities  of  rum  {fire?}  should  thereby  be  quenched,  to 
preserve  the  delicate  state  of  parboiledness  which  he  has  come  to  re- 
gard as  the  proper  condition,  or  true  earthly  blessedness. 


FLOKA; 


OB, 


VEGETABLE  LIFE  OF  THE  MOUNTAIN. 


"MANY  such  there  are, 

Fair  Ferns  and  Flowers,  and  chiefly  that  tall  Fern 
So  stately,  of  the  Queen  Osmunda  named  ; 
Plant  lovelier  in  its  own  retired  abode 
On  Grasmere's  beach,  than  Naiad  by  the  side 
Of  Grecian  brook,  or  Lady  of  the  Mere 
Sole  sitting  by  the  shores  of  Old  Romance." 

WORDSWOBTH. 


:  WHO  hath  the  virtue  to  express  the  rare 

And  curious  virtues  both  of  herbs  and  stones  ? 

Is  there  an  herb  for  that  ?     Oh  that  thy  care 
Would  show  a  root  that  gives  expressions ! 

( And  if  an  herb  hath  power,  what  have  the  stars  ? 

A  rose,  besides  his  beauty,  is  a  cure. 
Doubtless  our  plagues  and  plenty,  peace  and  wars, 

Are  there  much  surer  than  our  art  is  sure." 

'  Herbs  gladly  cure  our  flesh,  because  that  they 
Find  their  acquaintance  there." 

HERBERT. 


204 


THE  plant  may  be  characterized  as  organic  water  which  is  polar- 
ized upon  two  sides,  towards  the  earth  and  the  air.  The  vegetable 
vesicle  must,  therefore,  maintain  two  poles.  While  it  would  re- 
present in  itself  the  magnetic  pole,  it  endeavors  to  identify  itself,  to 
obey  gravity,  and  merge  into  the  darkness  toward  the  mediate  point 
of  the  earth ;  but  that  it  may  remain  a  galvanic  pole  it  becomes  ex- 
cited by  the  air,  strives  to  become  a  Diiferent  and  to  attain  the  light. 

Animals  are  entire  heavenly  bodies,  satellites  or  moons,  which  cir- 
culate independently  about  the  earth ;  all  plants,  on  the  contrary, 
taken  together,  are  only  equivalent  to  one  heavenly  body.  An  ani- 
mal is  an  infinity  of  plants. 

PHYSIOPHILOSOPHY. 


18  205 


"  As  sunbeams  stream  through  liberal  space, 
And  nothing  jostle  or  displace, 
So  waved  the  pine-tree  through  my  thought, 
And  fanned  the  dreams  it  never  brought. 

"  Who  leaves  the  pine-tree,  leaves  his  friend, 
Unnerves  Ms  strength,  invites  his  end. 

' '  Whether  is  better  the  gift  or  the  donor  ? 
Come  to  me, 
Quoth  the  pine-tree, 
I  am  the  giver  of  honor : 
He  is  great  who  can  live  by  me. 
The  rough  and  bearded  forester 
Is  better  than  the  lord ; 
God  fills  the  scrip  and  canister, 
Sin  piles  the  loaded  board. 

"  Whoso  walketh  in  solitude, 
And  inhabiteth  the  wood, 
Choosing  light,  wave,  rock,  and  bird, 
Before  the  money-loving  herd, 
Into  that  forester  shall  pass, 
From  these  companions,  power  and  grace. 
Clean  shall  he  be,  without,  within, 
From  the  old  adhering  sin." 

EMERSON. 


206 


CHAPTER  IV. 


FLORA  OF  THE  MOUNTAIN, 

To  the  Naturalist  the  tree  stands  the  kingly  record  of 
the  triumph  of  the  vegetable  life-principle.  A  transcen- 
dental cell,  even  the  imagination  can  scarcely  conceive  that 
from  the  simplest  vital  monad  such  form  of  loveliness  and 
majesty  could  ever  arrive. 

The  stately  palm  in  solitary  beauty,  the  gigantic  sequoia 
and  lofty  pine  spiring  to  the  realms  of  the  clouds,  the  sturdy 
"everlasting  oak"  and  imperial  magnolia,  the  banyan-fig- 
tree  and  mangrove,  must  acknowledge  brotherhood  with  the 
humble  lichen  on  their  trunks,  or  the  fragile  parasite  on  their 
leaves,  under  the  overshadowing  unity  and  tyranny  of  the 
law  of  "  organic  vesicles."  It  is  thus  that  the  primordial 
formula  of  the  tree  appears  to  the  eye  of  science,  under  the 
profane  microscope,  the  ruthless  knife,  and  that  despotic 
law. 

But  there  are  "  Trees  of  Jehovah  and  Cedars  of  Lebanon," 
(Ps.  civ.  16,)  signifying  the  spiritual  man.  (A.  C.,  Tt6.) 
"  Tree  also  signifies  man  ;  and  as  man  is  man  by  virtue  of 
affection  which  is  of  the  will,  and  perception  which  is  of  the 
understanding,  therefore  these  also  are  signified  by  tree. 
There  is  also  a  correspondence  between  man  and  a  tree ; 
wherefore,  in  heaven  there  appear  paradises  of  trees,  which 
correspond  to  the  affections  and  consequent  perceptions  of 
the  angels ;  and  in  some  places  in  hell  there  are  also  forests 
of  trees,  which  bear  evil  fruits,  correspondent  with  the  con- 

207 


208  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

cupiscences  and  consequent  thoughts  of  those  who  are  there." 
(A.K.,400.)* 

"  The  tree  is  man ;  the  effort  to  produce  means  is  with 
man,  from  his  will  in  his  understanding ;  the  stem  or  stalk, 
with  its  branches  and  leaves,  are  in  man  its  means,  and  are 
called  the  truths  of  faith  ;  the  fruits,  which  are  the  ultimate 
effects  of  the  effort  in  a  tree  to  fructify,  are  in  a  man  uses  ; 
in  these  his  will  exists.  (F.  16.)  Man,  who  is  re-born,  in 
like  manner  as  a  tree,  begins  from  seed ;  wherefore,  by  seed 
in  the  Word,  is  signified  the  truth  which  is  from  good ;  also, 
in  like  manner  as  a  tree,  he  produces  leaves,  next  blossoms, 
and  finally  fruit,  for  he  produces  such  things  as  are  of  in- 
telligence, which  also  in  the  Word  are  signified  by  leaves ; 
next  such  things  as  are  of  wisdom,  which  are  signified  by 
blossoms;  and  finally,  such  things  as  are  of  life,  namely, 
the  goods  of  love  and  charity  in  act,  which,  in  the  Word, 
are  signified  by  fruits.  Such  is  the  representative  similitude 
between  the  fruit-bearing  tree  and  the  man  who  is  regene- 
rated, insomuch  that  from  a  tree  may  be  learned  how 
the  case  is  with  regeneration,  if  so  be,  anything  be  pre- 
viously known  concerning  spiritual  good  and  truth."  (A.  C., 
5115.) 

"  The  tree  of  life  signifies  perception  from  the  Lord,  and 
the  tree  of  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  perception  from 
the  world.  (Ap.  Ex.,  739.)  Trees  of  Eden  (Ezek.  xxxi.) 
signify  scientifics,  and  knowledges  collected  from  the  Word 
profaned  by  reasonings."  (A.  C.,  130.)  "And  the  Tree  of 
Knowledge  signifies  the  pride  of  one's  own  intelligence." 
(D.  P.,  328.) 

The  culmination  of  a  vast  vital  series,  the  imperial  or- 
ganism of  that  wondrous  chain  between  death  and  life, — 
between  the  organic  and  inorganic  worlds,  "man  and  no- 
thingness," profoundly  significant  as  an  emblem  of  expres- 
sion or  symbol  of  utterance  between  the  Finite  and  Infinite, 
for  the  tree  also  is  a  type  of  man,  and  there  is  a  "corre- 

*  Swedenborg. 


FLORA    OF   THE    MOUNTAIN.  209 

spondence  between  man  and  the  tree ;"  thus  an  indispensable 
element  in  that  shining  web  of  uses  which  is  the  universe, 
the  mystical  and  scientific  representations  of  the  tree  seem 
to  be  numberless. 

"All  life  is  figured  as  a  tree.  Igdrasil,  the  Ash-tree  of 
Existence,  has  its  roots  deep  down  in  the  kingdoms  of  Hela 
or  Death ;  its  trunk  reaches  up  heaven-high,  spreads  its 
branches  over  the  whole  Universe:  it  is  the  Tree  of  Ex- 
istence. At  the  foot  of  it,  in  the  Death-Kingdom,  sit  three 
nornas,  Fates, — the  Past,  Present,  and  Future, — watering  its 
roots  from  the  sacred  Well.  Its  boughs,  with  their  buddings 
and  disleafings — events,  things  suffered,  things  done,  catas- 
trophes— stretch  through  all  lands  and  times.  Is  not  every 
leaf  of  it  a  biography,  every  fibre  there  an  act  or  word  ? 
Its  boughs  are  Histories  of  Nations.  The  rustle  of  it  is 
the  noise  of  Human  Existence,  onward  as  from  of  old.  It 
grows  there,  the  breath  of  human  passion  rustling  through 
it;  or  storm-tossed,  the  storm-wind  howling  through  it 
like  the  voice  of  all  the  gods.  It  is  Igdrasil,  the  Tree 
of  Existence.  It  is  the  Past,  the  Present,  and  the  Future ; 
what  was  done,  what  is  doing,  what  will  be  done ;  the  in- 
finite conjugation  of  the  verb  to  do.  Considering  how  hu- 
man things  circulate,  each  inextricably  in  communion  with 
all, — how  the  word  I  speak  to  you  to-day  is  borrowed,  not 
from  Ulfila  the  Maesogoth  only,  but  from  all  men  since  the 
first  man  began  to  speak, — I  find  no  similitude  so  true  as 
this  of  a  Tree.  Beautiful ;  altogether  beautiful  and  great. 
The  Machine  of  the  Universe; — Alas  !  !  do  but  think  of 
that  in  contrast !  !  "* 

"The  incorruptible  being  is  likened  unto  the  tree  Az- 
wattha,  whose  root  is  ABOVE  and  whose  branches  are  BELOW, 
and  whose  leaves  are  the  veds.  He  who  knoweth  that,  is 
acquainted  with  the  veds.  Its  branches  growing  from  the 
three  Goon  or  qualities,  whose  lesser  shoots  are  the  objects 
of  the  organs  of  sense,  spread  forth  some  high  and  some 

*   "Heroes  in  History;"  Thomas  Carlyle. 
IS* 


210  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

low.  The  roots  which  are  spread  abroad  below,  in  the  re- 
gions of  mankind,  are  restrained  by  action.  Its  form  is  not 
to  be  found  here,  neither  its  beginning,  nor  its  end,  nor  its 
likeness.  When  a  man  hath  cut  down  this  Azwattha,  whose 
root  is  so  firmly  fixed,  with  the  strong  axe  of  disinterest,  from 
that  time  that  place  is  to  be  sought  from  whence  there  is  no 
return  for  those  who  find  it ;  and  I  make  manifest  that  first 
Pooroosh  from  whom  is  produced  the  ancient  progression 
of  all  things."* 

Does  not  the  oracular  tree  whisper  to  each  ear  the  answer 
to  the  prayer  it  wants  to  hear  ?  To  the  shepherd  boy  in 
the  raptures  of  love, — love  only,  as  when  the  "Milk-white 
thorn  that  scents  the  evening  gale,"  breathes  out  for  him  his 
"tender  tale ;"  to  the  poet,  dreaming,  it  speaks  of  beauty  and 
ecstasy,  a  wave  of  that  sea  of  glittering  globules  which  plays 
forever  before  his  soul,  "a  flash  of  light  in  the  infinite  and 
eternal  night;"  to  the  savant,  armed  with  microscope,  it 
gives  an  invitation,  beckoning  forward  to  explore  and  con- 
template forever ;  and  to  the  pious  devotee,  in  the  fervors 
of  devotion,  is  it  not  a  "  stream  of  consecrated  glory,  which 
heaven  ardent  opens,  and  lets  down  on  man  in  audience 
with  the  Deity  "? 

It  is  thus  that  the  Hebrew  prophet's  far-reaching  adum- 
brations attain  to  final  organic  utterance  in  the  transcendent 
soul  of  the  Swedish  seer  through  the  spiritual  interpretation 
of  the  Word ;  and  thus,  also,  that  the  Myths,  of  Scandina- 
vian Scalds,  find  soil  for  their  roots  in  Scottish  heads,  and 
" Heimskringlas"  and  "Heroes  in  History"  unite  in  the 
infinite  beauty  and  significance  of  the  tree.  So,  in  far-off 
symbolisms  and  correspondences,  in  vague  and  shadowy  but 
living  and  suggestive  thoughts,  does  the  tree  stretch  forth 
its  roots,  trunk,  branches  and  leaves,  flowers  and  fruit,  into 
that  more  spiritual  and  ethereal  world  the  consciousness  of 
man.  From  ancient  bibles  and  vedas,  in  inspirations  of 
Hebrew  and  Hindoo  bards,  from  mysterious  Druidical  sha- 

*  Of  Poorooshottama.  B.  V.,  page  111. 


FLORA   OF   THE    MOUNTAIN.  211 

dows,  and  the  first  mutterings  of  poetry  and  song,  steals  out 
the  mysterious  life-thought,  as  "Tree  of  Knowledge,"  "Tree 
of  Jehovah,"  "Tree  of  Life,"  the  essential  celestial — "and, 
in  a  supreme  sense,  the  Lord  himself," — "Tree  of  Exist- 
ence," wonderful  Igdrasil !  !  and  the  still  more  mystical  and 
divine  Tree  Azwattha,  Symbol  of  the  "Incorruptible  Be- 
ing." 

Even  to  the  first  opening  intelligence  of  barbarous  and 
semi-barbarous  tribes,  there  was  discovered  that  "occult 
relation  between  man  and  the  vegetable,"  as  from  his  earli- 
est history  a  reverence  for  trees  and  forests  was  a  marked 
characteristic.  The  primitive  home  of  the  uncivilized 
man,  they  gave  the  first  sense  of  protection  and  comfort ; 
the  first  temples  of  the  gods,  groves  overwhelmed  him 
with  awe,  and  impressed  upon  him  veneration  for  the 
supernals. 

"  Who  haunts  the  lonely  coverts  of  the  grove  : 
To  these,  and  these  of  all  mankind  alone, 
The  gods  are  sure  reveal'd,  or  sure  unknown."* 

Old  in  story  are  the  woods  of  the  Druids  ;  old  are  the  fables 
of  Pan,  and  trees  sacred  to  the  deities  of  the  forests ;  and 
ancient  are  the  groves  of  Silvanus  and  Dodona.  The  love 
of  woods,  then,  comes  as  a  revelation  of  the  profoundest 
instincts  of  the  soul ;  for  by  no  accident  could  appear  this 
constant  fidelity,  this  inevitable  worship. 

The  retreat  of  the  SAVAGE,  the  home  of  the  POET,  the 
temple  of  the  PRIEST,  the  ancient  faith  and  primeval  worship 
of  NATURE,  was  a  phasis  of  man's  development  stretching 
down  to  necessary  and  immortal  affinities,  rooted  in  inevit- 
able placental  relationships,  sacred  as  bonds  of  a  divine 
maternity,  and  is  still  inseparable  from  the  duration  of  his 
normal  life,  as  air  from  his  lung  or  blood  from  his  heart. 
The  forest  must  continue  to  be  the  heaven  of  ecstasy  for 
contemplation  and  worship,  and  the  haven  of  rest  for  the 

*  Howe. 


212  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

wounded  and  wearied  from  the  dusty  roads  and  burning 
fields  of  the  world ;  and  while  the  sacred  retreat  of  the  de- 
votee of  religion  and  beauty,  they  invite  the  sick  and  suffer- 
ing in  body  and  soul,  the  lacerated  and  riven  in  spirit  and 
heart,  to  wander  in  their  life-renewing  shades.  Why  were 
the  temples  of  ^Esculapius  built  in  groves  and  on  mountains 
outside  of  towns  and  cities  ?  A  profound  wisdom  looms 
forth  from  the  institutions  and  rites  of  the  ancients,  and  dear 
perpetually  to  the  gods  is  the  soundness  of  the  bodies  and 
souls  of  mortals  ;  the  classical  dream  of  JEsculapius  and  his 
daughter  Hygeia  shining  as  the  prophecy  of  the  light  of 
true  science  dawning  and  to  beam  forever. 

Leaving  the  poetry,  symbolism,  and  far-off  spiritual  sig- 
nificance of  the  tree,  turn  to  the  tree  itself.  Botanists 
have  distributed  the  trees  that  grow  on  the  surface  of  the 
planet  into  a  series  of  belts  or  zones ;  as  "  certain  climatal 
conditions  are  requisite  for  the  growth  of  trees,  there  exist 
certain  portions  of  the  earth's  surface  destitute  of  woods, 
chiefly  on  account  of  cold.  The  tree-limit  illustrates  this.* 
At  the  north  this  limit  is  sometimes  71°  north  latitude,  and 
in  the  "  southern  hemisphere  it  extends  as  far  as  the  conti- 
nents, "f  These  zones  are  named,  commencing  at  the  north, 
1st,  The  zone  of  conifers ;  2d,  The  zone  of  amentaceous  or 
catkin-bearing  trees  ;  3d,  The  zone  of  multiform  woods  ;  and 
4th,  The  zone  of  the  rigid-leaved  woods.  J 

These  belts  are  again  designated,  by  others,  the  zone  of 
conifers,  the  zone  of  deciduous,  and  the  zone  of  evergreen 
woods. § 

By  examining  this  highly  interesting  and  attractive  sub- 
ject, it  will  be  discovered  that  with  the  geographic  distribu- 
tion of  plants  is  connected  the  whole  destiny  and  progress 
of  the  human  being,  and  if  "  necessity  is  (not)  the  mother 
of  the  world,"  she  establishes  eternal  limitations  to  all 
things,  and  is  at  least  that  dread  power  that  fixes  the 
fates  of  men. 

*  Schouw.  f  Idem.  {  Idem.  %  Schleidcn. 


FLORA   OF   THE   MOUNTAIN.  213 

Within  the  Tropics  or  Zone  of  Multiform  Trees  a  bound- 
less exuberance  of  vegetative  force,  with  endless  diversity  of 
structure,  prevails.  Rich  and  varied  in  color  of  inflorescence 
and  foliage,  the  forests  of  the  equatorial  regions  are  masses  of 
life  and  light.  The  closely-packed  trunks  of  an  extensive 
variety  of  eccentric  and  beautifully-formed  trees  are  chained 
into  continuities  of  woods  by  interwoven  masses,  or  net- 
works of  vines,  which  knot  and  rope  the  whole  together, 
while  their  bodies,  branches,  and  leaves  are  alive  with 
parasitic  plants  clinging  to  their  surfaces,  or  trailing  in 
pendant  festoons  from  stem  to  stem.  From  the  disposi- 
tion of  the  leaves,  and  whole  style  and  character  of  the 
foliage,  a  ghastly  light  permeates  every  recess  of  these 
forests,  which  are  also  filled  with  a  corresponding  multitude 
of  animal  forms,  revelling  in  the  heat  and  glare  which  con- 
stitute the  horrors  of  the  woods  of  the  tropics.  With  this 
light  and  splendor,  this  flaunting  array  of  fantastic  figures 
and  brilliant  coloring,  the  forests  of  the  temperate  zone  pre- 
sent a  most  entire  and  perfect  contrast.  Leaving  the  bril- 
liant but  noxious  display  of  the  vegetation  of  the  torrid 
spaces,  the  change  to  the  cool  recesses  of  the  mixed  woods 
of  the  temperate  climates  is  one  of  the  most  striking  phe- 
nomena of  Nature.  These  forests  are  composed  principally 
of  deciduous  trees,  as  the  oak,  beech,  chestnut,  maple,  etc., 
with  smaller  trees  mixed,  and  sometimes  with  different  species 
of  the  coniferas.  They  have  frequently  a  bush-underwood  or 
heath-growth  beneath  the  larger  trees,  which  is  composed  of 
a  number  of  interesting  plants,  but  presents  nothing  like  the 
labyrinth  of  vines  and  smaller  shrubs  that  fill  the  inter- 
spaces of  the  forests  of  hot  climates.  This  is  explained  by 
the  deeply-shading  foliage  of  these  woods  obstructing  the 
light  from  their  recesses,  so  that  few  plants  can  grow  be- 
neath them  for  want  of  heat  and  light,  the  great  life-elements 
of  the  tropics.  With  markedly  distinguished  features,  this 
zone  of  plants  is  widely  separated  both  from  the  belt  of 
"  rigid-leaved,"  the  multiform,  and  the  woods  of  the  exclu- 
sive coniferee.  It  contains  some  of  the  most  imposing  and 


214  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

interesting  forms  within  the  tree-limit.  Sometimes  single 
species  occupy  extensive  surfaces,  almost  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  others,  their  groves  stretching  in  dense  and  serried 
ranks  over  large  spaces. 

Again,  a  number  of  species  grow  together, — plants  widely 
separated  in  botanical  affinities, — as,  for  example,  the  cone- 
bearers  and  deciduous  tribes,  thus  giving  all  the  elements  of 
variety  and  graceful  combination  to  this  order  of  woods. 
These  mixed  growths  of  trees  are  of  surpassing  beauty, 
some  of  them  exhibiting  a  grandeur  and  solemnity  found 
only  in  the  dark  recesses  of  the  magnificent  forests  of  the 
temperate  latitudes.  They  are  the  great  woodlands,  possess- 
ing so  much  value  as  reservoirs  of  timber,  for  all  purposes, 
and  whose  importance  to  man,  in  every  aspect,  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  compute. 

The  Alleghany  Mountain,  in  Pennsylvania,  in  its  botani- 
cal developments  through  planetary  affinities,  falls,  in  its 
general  relationship  to  the  world  of  vegetable-life,  into  this 
belt  or  zone  of  geographic  distribution  of  plants. 

The  history  of  this  life  and  its  diversity  of  types,  or  the 
"  Flora"  of  the  mountain,  especially  in  the  department  of 
trees,  is  one  of  extreme  attraction. 

As  the  direct  and  necessary  consequence  of  the  geography 
and  geology,  or  soil  and  climate  of  a  region,  as  already  shown, 
the  vegetable  world  unfolds  itself  by  its  own  fixed  and  un- 
alterable laws.  Next  to  topographic  distribution  of  surface, 
hill,  valley,  mountain,  and  stream,  "  the  vegetable  clothing 
makes  the  distinctive  features  of  a  country,  the  tree-world, 
or  arborescent  vegetation,  being  especially  concerned  in  im- 
parting expression  and  character  to  surfaces."* 

The  mixed  soils  of  the  different  tracts  of  the  Alleghany 
range,  in  Pennsylvania,  and  its  mixed  climate  from  elevation 
above  the  level  of  the  sea  and  the  medium  latitudinal  geo- 
graphic position  in  the  temperate  belt  of  the  planet,  marks  the 
meeting  of  separate  vegetable  classes,  and  gives  great  diver- 

*  Schouw. 


FLORA   OF   THE   MOUNTAIN.  215 

sity  of  phytological  life.  There  is,  in  this  region,  the  combi- 
nation of  two  zones  of  plants  just  described,  namely,  the  Tere- 
binthinate  trees,  (coniferae,)  or  those  possessing  slender  stems, 
of  great  height,  and  needle-shaped  leaves  which  are  evergreen, 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  species,  and  the  zone  of  amenta- 
ceous trees,  which  are  plants  with  spreading  branches  and 
diffuse  spray,  bearing  wide,  tender,  and  membranous  leaves, 
which  drop  every  year  and  leave  the  stems  and  branches  bare 
through  the  frost  months.  The  mingling  of  these  two  belts, 
which  are  representative  worlds,  and  unite  widely- separated 
chapters  of  the  history  of  the  planet,  with  laws  of  media, 
soil,  and  climate,  distinct  and  peculiar,  gives  a  special  charm 
and  interest  to  the  forests  of  the  Alleghany. 

A  notice  of  some  of  the  most  striking  trees  composing 
these  forests  may  not  be  found  uninteresting.  This  reci- 
tation need  not  be  made  in  the  strictly  scientific  order  of 
the  botanist,  but  in  the  natural  succession  in  which  they 
might  be  supposed  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  traveler. 
A  catalogue  of  the  most  commonly  observed  and  extensively 
distributed  plants  of  the  mountain,  including  the  several  de- 
partments of  botany,  will  be  appended  to  this  chapter.  The 
object  of  this  must  be  obvious,  especially  to  the  physician, 
to  whom  the  great  laws  of  "  Habitats,"  and  the  dread  neces- 
sities which  superintend  the  devevelopment  and  perpetuation 
of  Life  in  all  its  forms,  reveal  themselves  in  the  character, 
qualities,  entire  nature  of  the  proper  legitimate  earth-chil- 
dren rooted  in  and  united  by  bonds  of  parental  affinity  to 
special  localities  and  in  special  media. 

The  trees  and  woods  of  this  range  of  mountains  have 
some  distinguishing  features,  all  of  which  will  be  apparent 
after  a  special  portraiture  of  them  shall  have  been  made. 

The  mountain  is  clothed  with  an  extensive  and  beautiful 
variety  of  trees.  In  their  distribution  upon  the  surface, 
these  trees  seek  the  most  congenial  localities,  affecting  the 
soil  and  exposure  made  healthful  and  agreeable  by  oldest 
affinities  and  home  sympathies.  Rocky  height  or  rugged 
ravine,  alpine  table-land  or  sloping  mountain  vale,  have  each 


216  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

their  primal  clothing  of  vegetation.  The  southeastern 
slopes  of  the  mountain,  also  its  range  of  summit-knobs,  are 
generally  covered  by  a  variety  of  oaks,  chestnut,  firs,  and 
pines,  and  a  number  of  other  trees,  those  with  deciduous 
leaves  greatly  predominating.  In  winter  the  aspect  of  this 
side  of  the  mountain  is  stark  and  bare,  the  monotonous  gray 
of  the  forests  destitute  of  foliage,  prevailing,  with  occa- 
sional spots  of  pines,  their  dark-green  hue  visible  at  all  sea- 
sons of  the  year.  Other  parts  of  the  mountain,  especially 
the  ranges  of  depressions  of  the  western  sides,  on  the  con- 
trary, show  great  extents  of  evergreen  forests.  Its  eastern 
slopes  and  summit  in  full  summer  costume  present  an  un- 
rivaled array  of  verdure  in  an  endless  ocean  of  leaves, — the 
foliage  of  the  hardier  members  of  the  oak  family,  as  the 
chestnut  oaks,  with  white,  red,  and  black  oaks  prevailing. 
To  these  may  be  added  the  chestnut,  beech,  and  several 
varieties  of  birch  and  maple,  with  linden,  poplar,  cucumber, 
hickory,  and  walnut. 

As  the  forest  is  composed  of  an  aggregate  of  individual 
trees,  and  the  exact  mode  of  growth  of  the  individual  giving 
at  last  a  general  character  to  the  forest,  some  notice  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  different  trees  of  the  mountain  grow 
may  assist  in  the  truthful  rendering  of  its  woods.  This 
special  portraiture  of  trees,  or  the  study  of  the  growth  and 
mode  of  development  of  each  kind  of  tree,  properly  belongs 
to  the  artistic  department  of  natural  science,  and  is  espe- 
cially attractive  to  the  naturalist  who  is  not  a  mere  catalogue- 
maker.  Besides  the  exhaustless  beauty  of  the  variety  of 
form,  and  the  special  attraction  of  specific  styles  of  growth, 
this  study  of  the  individual  tree  reveals  great  laws  of  science 
in  the  necessities  which  superintend  the  unfolding  of  its 
structure.  This  style  of  growth  is  thus  a  theme  of  twofold 
attraction,  interesting  to  botanical  physiologists,  and  espe- 
cially interesting  to  the  artist  or  student  of  form, — for  the 
different  varieties  of  trees  have  forms  and  expressions  as 
different  and  characteristic  as  the  separate  races  of  animals ; 
indeed,  each  individual  tree,  flower,  or  rock,  is  a  unit  as  per- 


FLORA   OF   THE    MOUNTAIN.  217 

feet  as  any  other  unit,  whether  animal  or  man.  All 
men  are  more  or  less  alike,  so  are  all  blades  of  grass ;  all 
trees  are  more  or  less  alike,  so  are  the  birds  in  their 
branches.  But  the  artist  who  works  from  Nature  had  better 
forget  his  patterns  or  stereotype  trees  of  different  orders, 
his  model  men,  birds,  and  plants;  for  in  the  living 
universe  they  are  all,  also,  exceedingly  unlike  each  other. 
Each  man  and  grass-blade  is  an  individual  having  all  those 
modifications  of  external  or  secondary  qualities  which 
mark  him  or  it  from  all  other  men  and  grass-blades,  and 
makes  it  that  individual,  unlike  all  other  men  or  grass- 
blades  of  the  universe.  So  must  the  real  artist  paint  the 
individual  tree ;  and  thus  is  the  world  endless  in  opu- 
lence of  resources,  and  each  form  of  each  new  tree  is 
a  study,  and  its  integrity  and  beauty  renewed  forever. 
Hence,  also,  is  this  worshiper  in  "  God's  first  temple"  envel- 
oped in  a  perpetually  new  atmosphere  of  light  and  loveliness  ; 
and  thus  does  he  drink  from  fresh  rivers  of  ethereal  wine,  and 
in  the  deep  beatitude  of  the  artist's  love  of  beauty  feels  that 
he  could  be  entranced  for  a  thousand  years. 

No  contrast  can  be  more  striking  than  that  which  ex- 
ists between  the  evergreen  trees  and  the  deciduous,  or 
those  which  assume  only  a  summer  dress,  being  arrayed  for 
occasions.  Their  forms  are  as  differently  suggestive  as  the 
substances  which  constitute  their  bodies.  Different  members 
of  the  pine  family  affect  the  shape  of  the  pyramid,  yielding  to 
the  imagination  the  idea  of  duration,  by  giving  a  base  which 
no  storm  can  uproot  or  turn  over,  their  tapering  summits, 
at  the  same  time,  presenting  the  smallest  surfaces  for  the  at- 
tacking winds.  The  oak  and  the  beech,  very  different  from 
the  pine,  fling  out  their  arms  into  wide,  umbrageous,  over- 
shadowing masses  of  limbs  and  twigs,  which  only  seem  to 
wish  to  grow  on  and  cover  the  largest  space.  Thus  the  pine- 
tree  sings  its  song  and  has  its  dance  of  joy  in  the  war  of  the 
winds,  and  the  tempest's  roar  is  its  frolic,  while  the  branches 
of  the  oak  and  beech  are  whirled  and  twisted  like  withs 
in  its  fury,  their  leaves  being  torn  to  rags  and  scattered 

19 


218  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

like  dust  in  the  tornado's  path.  One  class  represents  the 
hardy  pioneers  of  a  world  in  a  process  of  reclamation  from 
chaos,  for 

"  My  garden  is  the  cloven  rock, 

And  my  manure  the  snow, 
And  drifting  sand-heaps  feed  my  stock, 
In  summer's  scorching  glow." 

Thus  a  full-armed  warrior,  ready  for  battle  at  a  mo- 
ment's warning,  stands  the  pine-tree ;  the  other  the  repre- 
sentative, also  the  fruit  of  a  riper  time,  belonging  to  a  more 
progressed  system,  requiring  richer  soil  and  fatter  provender, 
can  only  sport  destructible  leaves  for  a  short  time,  soft  and 
evanescent,  and  requires  constant  protection  and  care. 

Something  of  the  individual  tree  or  species,  its  style  of 
development  or  architecture  ;  something  of  the  fashion  of 
tree-building  on  the  Alleghanies,  may  introduce  the  inquirer 
to  a  clearer  recognition  of  the  laws  of  organic  life  under 
the  despotism  of  physical  conditions  and  the  grave  necessi- 
ties of  habitats. 

In  noticing  the  trees  of  the  mountain,  without  reference  to 
scientific  classification  or  precedence,  we  commence  with  the 
white  ash,  as  a  representative  of  use  and  beauty.  This  is 
the  FRAXINUS  AMERICANA  of  the  botanists,  and  is  certainly 
a  family  connection  of  Igdrasil,  the  Ash-tree  of  Existence, 
but  just  where,  in  botanical,  natural,  or  artificial  systems,  is 
not  recorded, 

The  books  quote  it  as  "  a  large  tree,  fifty  or  sixty  feet 
high."  This  description  will  not  apply  to  the  tree  as  it 
grows  on  the  mountain.  It  there  frequently  attains  to  five 
feet  in  diameter,  with  a  height  of  120  feet ;  its  close-ribbed, 
deeply  and  finely  sulcated  light-gray  bark  covering  a  trunk  as 
straight  as  a  granite  shaft  sometimes  for  eighty  feet,  and 
without  a  branch.  At  this  height  it  separates  into  branches, 
forming  a  head  of  finely  divided  limbs  and  spray,  its  small, 
green  pinnate  leaves  pubescent  and  glaucous  beneath  in  3-4 
pairs,  giving  to  its  delicate  foliage  an  expression  strange  and 


FLORA    OF   THE    MOUNTAIN.  219 

unsuitable  for  a  tree  of  such  majestic  proportions.  One  other 
less  stately  species  of  this  genus  grows  on  the  mountain, 
the  FRAXINUS  PUBESCENS. 

MAGNOLIA  ACUMINATA. — This  is  the  mountain  magnolia, 
or  cucumber-tree.  Beck  describes  it  as  a  "middle-sized 
tree,  sometimes,  however,  attaining  the  height  of  seventy 
feet;"  and  Darlington  represents  it  as  a  "  majestic  and  sym- 
metrical species,  sixty  to  eighty  feet  high,"  which  would 
convey  but  a  remote  idea  of  the  proportions  assumed  by  this 
splendid  plant  on  the  Alleghanies.  It  frequently  exhibits  a 
diameter  of  four  and  a  half  feet,  with  a  beautiful  undivided 
stem  of  ninety  feet,  as  straight  as  a  plumb-line,  covered 
by  a  laminated  white  bark,  with  narrow  but  not  deep 
grooves,  the  whole  tree  attaining  the  height  of  120  feet. 
The  leaves  of  this  tree  are  of  exceeding  beauty,  dark-green 
and  glossy  above,  and  beneatn  bluish  and  pubescent,  often 
twelve  inches  long  by  six  inches  in  width.  The  flowers  are 
large  and  handsome,  but  not  gayly  colored,  and  are  followed 
by  a  reddish  fruit,  like  a  small  cucumber,  possessing  a  highly 
aromatic  taste  and  smell.  It  is  found  inconsiderable  abund- 
ance in  the  depths  of  the  forests  on  the  western  sides  and 
table-lands  of  the  mountain,  and  grows  mixed  with  other 
trees.  Its  style  of  foliage  and  growth  gives  the  tree  a 
peculiar  and  distinguished  cast,  its  large  dark-green  leaves 
attracting  the  eye,  as  if  some  majestic  stranger  had  wan- 
dered into  the  forest ;  so  exotic  and  foreign  in  its  aspect 
that  the  beholder  is  reminded  of  tropical  palms  and  man- 
groves. The  lumber  of  this  tree  classes  in  value  with  that 
of  the  poplar  or  tulip-tree.  Gray  suggests  that,  "possibly  the 
Magnolia  Fraseri  (the  long-leaved  cucumber-tree)  grows  in 
the  mountains  of  Pennsylvania."  He  also  quotes  the  Mag- 
nolia umbrella  as  being  found  on  the  mountains  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. On  the  Alleghanies  they  have  not  yet  been  seen. 

ACER. — This  is  the  family  of  maples,  several  of  which 
are  found  on  the  mountain. 

ACER  SACCHARINUM,  or  the  sugar  maple,  grows  here 
into  a  large  tree.  Both  varieties  (the  saccharinum  and 


220  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

nigrum)  are  found  growing  sometimes  five  feet  in  diameter 
and  110  feet  high.  Its  trunk  is  rough  and  twisted,  with 
rugged,  scaly  bark,  when  it  grows  in  open  woods,  but 
slender,  straight,  and  smoother  when  it  grows  in  deep 
forests  with  other  trees,  or  in  dense  groves  of  its  own 
species.  The  white  silvery  wood  of  this  tree  is  much  valued 
as  fuel,  also  for  cabinet  purposes,  especially  when  that  freak, 
or  "fantastic  trick"  of  the  woody  fibre  occurs,  producing 
what  is  called  "bird's-eye  maple."  Its  well-known  sugar- 
sap  gives  one  of  the  staples  of  the  mountain. 

ACER  RUBRUM  is  also  found  here.  This  species  is  called 
"rock  maple,"  and  furnishes  the  variety  of  cabinet  lumber 
called  "curly  maple." 

The  ACER  PENNSYLVANICUM,  striped  maple,  moosewood, 
or  striped  dogwood,  is  a  small,  slender  tree,  with  beauti- 
ful foliage,  and  dark-green,  "handsomely-striped  branches. 
It  grows  abundantly  on  the  mountain,  but  has  no  value  as 
timber,  its  trunk  never  attaining  more  than  a  few  inches  in 
diameter. 

"ACER  SPICATUM  "  is  a  tall  shrub  which  grows  in  clumps 
and  thickets  in  the  gorges  and  ravines  of  the  mountain. 
This  little  plant  is  called  "mountain  maple,"  and,  although 
only  a  bush,  it  bears  a  most  striking  resemblance  to  its  im- 
perial brothers,  the  arborescent  species. 

There  are  several  indigenous  cherry-trees  on  the  moun- 
tain. These  are  of  the  genus  CERASUS. 

CERASUS  PENNSYLVANIA  is  a  graceful  little  tree,  quoted 
by  the  botanists  at  twenty  to  thirty  feet  high,  but  often  twice 
that  height.  It  bears  snow-white  blossoms  on  thin,  bright- 
red,  and  purple  branches  and  twigs,  followed  by  a  red,  sour 
little  cherry. 

CERASUS  VIRGINIAN  A  is  the  choke-cherry.  This  is  rather 
a  bush,  scarcely  ever  aspiring  to  the  tree  form,  and  grows 
along  streams,  bearing  abundance  of  astringent  fruit  on 
short,  close  racemes. 

The  CERASUS  SEROTINA  is  the  wild  black-cherry,  said  to 
grow  "thirty  to  sixty  feet  high."  On  the  Alleghanies  this 


FLOEA   OF   THE   MOUNTAIN.  221 

plant  is  a  superb  tree,  often  five  feet  in  diameter  and  125  feet 
high.  It  grows  in  groves  or  mingled  with  other  tall  trees, 
and  rivals  the  tallest  of  them  in  height.  When  it  grows  in 
this  manner  it  exhibits  the  peculiar  shape  of  the  mountain 
trees  growing  in  dense  woods.  This  form  of  trees  has 
been  brought  about  by  the  circumstance  of  their  original 
growth.  The  mass  of  foliage  rises  in  a  plane  forming 
the  tops  of  the  trees.  As  the  lower  limbs  become  shaded 
and  atrophied,  they  die  and  drop  off,  and  at  last  branch- 
buds  cease  to  be  developed  and  branches  to  grow,  the  trunks 
or  stems  extending  upward  as  naked  symmetrical  shafts  of 
mathematical  regularity,  the  terminal  branches  forming  a 
leafy  summit  or  canopy,  which  continues  to  mount  higher  and 
higher  as  the  mass  of  the  forest  rises  in  the  air. 

In  open  woods  and  low-lands  of  the  State,  this  tree  grows 
in  a  widely-spreading  umbrageous  mass,  the  stem  dividing 
into  a  number  of  branches,  the  whole  tree  scarcely  attaining 
half  the  height  of  the  same  plant  struggling  in  the  depths 
of  the  mountain  forests.  A  stem  without  a  branch  for 
ninety  feet,  and  as  straight  as  a  gun-barrel,  is  a  common 
form  of  the  plant  in  these  woods.  This  is  the  "cherry- 
lumber"  tree,  so  much  valued  as  cabinet  material. 

Of  the  allied  genus  PRTJNUS,  the  mountain  has  one  species, 
the  "Americana."  It  has  the  ordinary  characters  of  the  tree 
elsewhere. 

BEECH-TREE. — Of  the  genus  FAGUS,  the  continent,  and, 
consequently,  the  Alleghany,  has  but  one  species,  and  that 
is  the  FAGUS  FERRUGINEA,  or  American  beech.  The  mode 
of  growth  of  this  tree  in  the  mountain  forests  is  so  entirely 
different  from  the  shape  of  the  tree  elsewhere  that  it  seems 
to  have  lost  its  identity.  This  is  so  markedly  the  case  that 
common  observers  have  made  several  beeches  of  the  botani- 
cal one  species,  as  "white"  and  "red,"  "mountain"  and 
"water"  beech.*  These  varieties  are  of  course  produced  by 

*  When  the  heart-wood,  (duramen,}  which  is  a  flesh-red  color,  is 
large  in  proportion  to  the  white,  (alburnum,}  or  sap-wood,  it  is  called 

19* 


222  THE   MOUNTAIN.   ; 

the  circumstances  of  growth,  as  of  the  soil,  air,  moisture,  and 
other  special  surroundings  of  the  plant.  As  it  grows  on  the 
mountain,  the  tree,  an  object  of  loveliness,  is  especially  at- 
tractive, and  it  would  seem  that  in  the  beech  the  spirit  of 
grace  and  beauty  had  found  its  most  appropriate  image 
and  symbol  of  perfection.  It  grows  in  extensive  con- 
tinuous forests,  the  rugged  web  of  interwoven  roots  forming 
almost  a  floor  for  miles,  while  the  white  symmetrical  stems, 
uninterrupted  by  branches  to  a  great  height,  present  the 
appearance  of  Grecian  columns,  giving  an  expression  of  art 
to  these  vast  and  leafy  sylvan  temples.  In  striking  contrast 
with  the  hemlock  forests,  the  beech  groves  appear  in  gay 
and  fanciful  antagonism.  They  grow  everywhere  on,  but  seek 
the  flatter  slopes  of  the  mountain,  and  seem  to  affect  the 
gentle  undulating  surfaces  of  the  table-land.  These  forests, 
with  their  series  of  white  columnar  trunks  sporting  long, 
thin,  and  graceful  branches,  covered  with  delicate,  green, 
membranous  leaves,  half  translucent,  present  an  array  always 
festive  and  beautiful.  In  the  early  spring,  when  the  tender 
tissue-paper  young  leaves  are  unfolding,  and  present  their  soft 
and  delicate  surfaces  to  the  air,  it  is  hard  to  imagine  anything 
more  ethereal  and  exquisite  than  a  waving  grove  of  this  lovely 
tree.  In  autumn,  when  the  leaves  have  turned  yellow,  they 
appear  almost  to  possess  a  self-luminous  or  phosphores- 
cent power,  for,  at  this  time,  however  dark  the  night  may 
be,  or  dense  the  forests,  the  traveler  sees  his  path  illuminated 
by  a  mild,  diffused  light,  each  object  integrated  as  by  a  hazy 
moon  or  snow.  The  effect  of  this  mystic  and  peculiar  light 
is  enchanting.  After  being  for  a  time  in  beech  woods  the 
contrast  is  fearful,  if  the  pathway  lies  through  a  hemlock 

"  red  beech."  This  occurs  when  the  tree  is  old,  but  with  small  dia- 
meter, the  annual  layers  being  very  thin,  and  the  limbs  and  foliage 
small  in  quantity  and  proportion.  With  a  large  amount  of  limbs  and 
leaves  the  white  wood  predominates,  and  a  tree  of  a  given  diameter 
may  exhibit  only  half  the  number  of  concentric  annual  sheets,  and  be 
of  only  half  the  age,  of  a  red  or  heart-wood  tree  of  the  same  dimen- 
sion of  trunk. 


FLORA   OF   THE    MOUNTAIN.  223 

forest.  Almost  perfect  darkness  seems  at  once  to  reign, 
and  the  journey  must  be  groped  through  as  in  a  region  of 
absolute  night.  In  mixed  forests  of  these  two  trees  the 
effect  is  always  charming  in  the  extreme,  as  they  suggest 
different  orders  of  associations  and  reveal  different  phases  of 
the  elements  of  life  and  beauty. 

Of  the  Cone-Bearers,  or  Pine  Family,  there  are  not  many 
species  on  the  mountain.  A  few  pitch  pines  (Finns  rigidia) 
and  yellow  pines  (Pinus  mitis)  on  the  eastern  declivities  and 
summits,  also  an  occasional  spot  on  the  western  slopes,  to- 
gether with  the  white  pine  and  hemlock,  which  are  very 
abundant  on  the  whole  range,  constitute  the  representatives 
of  the  evergreen,  or  terebinthinate  order  of  plants. 

Genus  ABIES. — On  the  Alleghany  proper  there  is  but 
one  species  of  Spruce  in  great  abundance.  There  are  several 
species  of  this  genus  on  the  parallel  Appalachian  ridges  and 
intervening  elevated  valleys  of  Pennsylvania.  Asa  Gray 
cites  this  State  as  the  locality  of  several  species  of  Abies, 
viz.,  the  Fraseri,  Nigra,  Canade'nsis;  and  it  is  in  the  well- 
known  botanical  range  of  the  "Balsamea"  and  "Alba." 
Some  rare  localities  contain  several  of  these  beautiful  species, 
with  the  Hackmatack.  One  of  these  localities  is  a  delightful 
little  "garden  of  the  blest"  among  the  "seven  mountains" 
of  Centre  and  Huntingdon  counties,  called  the  "  Bear  Mea- 
dows." It  is  a  small,  elevated  synclinal  trough,  surrounded 
by  high,  sharp,  white  sandstone  (Formation  4)  mountains 
on  all  sides,  with  one  outlet  or  gorge,  through  which  flows  the 
stream  draining  the  valley.  It  is  evidently  the  bed  or  rich 
bottom  of  a  mountain  tarn  or  lake,  the  waters  of  which 
have  escaped  by  a  rupture  of  the  wall  surrounding  it.  A 
wild,  exquisite,  and  secluded  spot,  it  would  seem  to  be  the 
fantastic  Arcadia  of  some  dreaming  artist  or  lover  of  na- 
ture, hidden  from  the  world's  vulgar  gaze,  and  consecrated 
to  beauty.  Fresh  glimpses  of  green  carpet-spots  of  prairie, 
with  osier  beds  and  clumps  of  stately,  solemn  evergreens, 
black,  silver,  and  balsam  firs,  with  pines,  cedars,  and  laurels, 
open  into  vistas  of  tall,  deciduous  trees,  artistic  and  surprising 


224  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

in  their  exclusiveness  and  grace.  A  dark  amber-colored 
stream,  the  water  stained  from  vegetable  infusion,  and  exhibit- 
ing throughout  the  year  the  tint  of  the  mountain  waters  during 
the  fall  of  the  leaf,  wanders,  with  a  thousand  curves  and 
foldings,  through  wastes  of  reeds,  sedges,  azaleas,  alders, 
and  andromedas,  cardinal  flowers,  "  vegetable  satyrs,"  and 
the  more  imperial  Orchis,  with  weird  Sarracenias  and  gold- 
thread Coptis.  An  ancient  and  deserted  garden  of  rare 
and  lovely  evergreens,  varied  shrubbery,  and  beautiful 
flowers,  this  little  valley  seems,  in  its  isolation  and  seques- 
tered beauty,  to  be  a  fragment  of  Paradise  left  unprofaned, 
to  remind  us  of  the  splendor  of  the  pristine  home  and  of 
glories  departed. 

ABIES  CANADENSIS. — The  Canadian  fir-tree,  familiarly 
known  as  the  "  hemlock"  of  the  mountain,  is  a  very  abund- 
ant species.  It  delights  in  northern  exposures,  as  if  seeking 
to  battle  with  the  coldest  winds,  asking  no  sympathy  from 
the  more  genial  gales  of  the  south.  It  forms  large  forests, 
thick  and  compact,  taking  a  savage  and  exclusive  possession 
of  the  surface,  and  destroying  all  other  forms  of  vegetable 
life  beneath  them.  These  hemlock  forests  have  a  striking 
and  unique  appearance,  unlike  the  forests  of  any  other  tree. 
Like  the  gloomy  isles  of  dark,  half-subterranean  temples, 
enveloped  in  sepulchral  gloom,  the  wanderer  feels,  as  he 
treads  their  lonely  and  sequestered  solitudes,  that  the  darkness 
of  night  surrounds  him  at  noonday.  In  sleepy  silence,  with 
hushed  footsteps,  he  treads  their  labyrinths  of  majestic 
columns  as  if  veritably  in  the  "land  of  shades."  In  the 
winter  they  assume  an  extremely  sombre  aspect,  appearing, 
in  very  cold  weather,  the  ground  being  covered  with  snow,  as 
if  smoked  or  painted  black.  Like  the  forests  of  the  "  Inferno," 
gloomy  and  peculiar,  the  tree  has  a  funereal  hue,  and 
chills  while  it  invites  and  offers  the  protection  of  its  shade. 
It  seems  exclusive,  and  holds  its  title  to  the  surface  by  actual 
possession  for  hundreds  of  years. 

The  hemlock  of  the  mountain  grows  sometimes  to  an  enor- 
mous size,  frequently  attaining  the  circumference  of  20  feet, 


FLORA   OP   THE    MOUNTAIN.  225 

with  a  height  of  130  feet.  These  vast  towers  of  woody  fibre 
are  the  records  of  ages  of  labor  of  the  vegetable  life-powers, 
reclaiming  the  carbon,  earth,  and  water  of  the  world  from 
chaotic  floating.  They  fill  the  observer  with  astonishment, 
their  massive  forms,  "like  pillared  props  of  heaven,"  sug- 
gesting the  limbs  of  "Atlas,  whose  brawny  back  supports 
the  starry  skies."  Their  scraggy  and  rugged  trunks  give 
more  the  idea  of  rocky  shafts  than  trees,  and,  like  granite 
needles  or  stone  obelisks,  they  seem  to  say  they  will  stand 
forever.  The  lumber  of  this  tree  is  of  great  value. 

PINUS  STROBUS. — The  white  pine,  like  the  hemlock,  is  scat- 
tered over  the  whole  mountain  in  almost  every  position,  rocky 
height,  or  ravine,  but  only  prevails  in  extensive  continuous 
groves  along  the  valleys  of  the  streams,  or  the  cold  undulating 
surfaces  of  the  table-lands.  It  grows  in  dense  close-set  masses, 
which  have  an  expression,  sui  generis,  from  the  specific  shape 
or  style  of  the  tree.  It  is  the  loftiest  of  our  indigenous 
trees,  quoted  by  some  of  the  books  at  from  80  to  100  feet, 
but  in  primitive  mountain  forests  its  straight  thin  columns 
often  attain  a  height  of  nearly  200  feet,  with  an  exceedingly 
narrow  diametric  base.  These  small,  tapering  stems  look  like 
masts  of  ships  or  lightning-rods,  their  delicate  hair-leaf 
foliage  giving  the  appearance  of  green  mist  in  their  tallest 
boughs,  the  whole  woods  waving  like  a  grove  of  colossal 
plumes  in  the  wind.  The  sharp,  tapering  summits  of  these 
trees  do  not  intercept  the  rays  of  light  as  occurs  in  the 
interlocked  canopy  of  the  hemlock  forests,  but  give  a  green 
and  airy  lightness,  diffused  through  their  densest  groves,  with- 
out the  oppressive  sense  of  shade  and  darkness  which  pre- 
vail on  surfaces  covered  by  their  more  gloomy  brother. 

When  the  white  pine  grows  scattered  in  forests  of  other 
trees,  it  does  not  shoot  up  in  single  thin  stems,  but  fre- 
quently forks  or  divides  into  groups  of  stems,  which  spring 
generally  from  a  single,  massive,  knotty  stump,  or  short 
trunk,  which  rises  alone  from  the  earth.  The  size  of  this 
basis  or  pedestal  of  the  miniature  forest  above  is  often  of 
enormous  dimension  and  exceedingly  irregular  in  contour, 


226  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

but  it  is  evidently  most  generally  the  result  of  the  germina- 
tion of  single  seeds,  some  of  them  exhibiting,  however,  the 
appearance  of  two  or  three  seeds  having  germinated  in 
contact.  The  philosophy  of  the  growth  of  this  particular 
form  is,  apparently,  that  the  different  species  of  trees  form- 
ing these  groves  have  started  from  the  earth's  surface 
at  the  same  time,  but  somewhat  scattered,  and,  when  the 
first  branches  of  the  infant  pine  were  developed,  the  sur- 
rounding growth  prevented  a  lateral  expansion  of  the 
limbs,  each  of  the  primitive  branches  afterwards  becoming 
a  separate  trunk  or  tree,  and  projecting  itself  upward,  as  the 
pine  does  in  other  crowded  forests.  From  the  point  of 
separation  at  the  forks,  the  limbs,  each  a  noble  tree  itself, 
spring  together,  frequently  of  one  size,  like  an  immense 
chandelier,  and  rise  in  the  air,  the  whole  bundle  of  stems 
being  supported  and  nourished  by  one  large  root-base. 
Many  of  these  forked-pine  trees  have  quite  a  celebrity, 
and  have  attained  the  character  of  individuals,  and  are 
visited  as  curiosities  of  the  mountain.  The  lumber  of  the 
white  pine  is  of  great  value,  and  forms  one  of  the  chief 
staples  of  the  mountain. 

ULMUS. — Along  the  flats  of  some  of  the  streams  the  elm 
often  attains  to  a  great  size,  sometimes  dividing  into  regu- 
lar clumps  of  thin  trunks,  which  bend  outward  from  the 
centre,  the  whole  summit  being  flat,  and  the  tree  of  the 
shape  of  an  inverted  bell.  Three  species  of  the  genus  Ulmus 
grow  on  the  mountain,  viz.,  the  "Americana,"  the  "fulva," 
and  "racemosa."  They  seek,  as  elsewhere,  with  their  cha- 
racteristic instinct,  the  moist  flats  and  neighborhood  of 
streams.  Many  of  these  elms  are  of  enormous  size,  and  of 
exceedingly  fantastic  and  eccentric  forms,  appearing  to 
have,  by  some  sylvan  sorcery,  been  led  to  violate  all 
sober  and  common-sense  laws  of  tree-building,  and  to  have 
grown  by  freaks  of  the  vegetative  forces  into  "monsters 
of  such  frightful  mien,"  that,  to  be  remembered,  "need  but 
to  be  seen."*  To  have  introduced  the  photographic  tran- 

*  An  exact  and  perfectly-elaborated  portrait  of  an  elm  of  rare  and 
grotesque  form  and  immense  proportions  Las  been  painted  for  the 


FLORA   OF   THE    MOUNTAIN.  227 

scripts  of  some  of  these  trees  into  ANY  "  Midsummer  Night's 
Dream,"  would  scarcely  have  been  "  to  have  stolen  the  im- 
pression of  the  fantasy"  of  Shakspeare's  most  ultra  ima- 
ginative creations.  Surely,  in  the  presence  of  one  of  these 
fanciful  forms,  one  would  say,  that  the  artist  who  should  for- 
get or  deny  that  a  tree  can  be  an  individual,  in  its  contour 
and  lineaments  as  specific  and  unique  as  a  statue  of  Phidias 
or  a  church  of  Michael  Angelo,  had  better  drop  his  pencil, 
or  satisfy  his  aspirations  by  transcribing  the  stereotype  trees 
of  his  first  lesson-book,  and  by  the  transference  to  his  can- 
vas of  the  pictures  of  fence-rails  or  timber-posts. 

With  a  sense  of  shame  the  forgiveness  of  the  wood-gods 
must  be  implored  for  having  neglected  so  long  one  of  their 
special  admirations,  a  true  splendor  of  the  vegetable  world, 
the  LYRIODENDRON  -  TULIPIFERA,  or  tulip -tree,  sometimes 
also  called  the  wild  poplar.  The  mountain  sports  this 
plant  in  a  state  of  greatest  perfection,  its  trunk  attaining 
the  largest  proportions  by  the  species  anywhere  achieved. 
A  proud  and  lofty  monarch  of  the  American  woods,  it  is 
admired  as  a  beauty  of  the  earth  by  all  who  have  seen  it. 
With  a  broad,  lobed,  and  truncated  smooth  leaf  giving  a  spe- 

American  Academy  of  Music  of  Philadelphia,  by  Russel  Smith,  the 
well-known  American  landscape-painter.  Every  limb,  twig,  and  almost 
every  leaf,  of  this  remarkable  tree  has  been  fixed  on  a  canvas  forty 
feet  square,  by  the  wonderful  power  and  genius  of  this  gifted  artist. 
The  original  of  this  picture  stands  on  the  "everglades,"  or  what 
was  originally  the  beaver-dams  of  one  of  the  tributaries  of  Clear- 
field  Creek,  three  miles  northwest  of  the  "Alleghany  Health  Insti- 
tute." It  may  not  generally  be  known,  even  to  Pennsylvanians, 
that  many  of  the  finest  artistic  combinations  in  the  magnificent 
scenography  of  the  Academy,  the  grandest  histrionic  temple  in 
the  world,  were  taken  from  the  recesses  of  the  Alleghany  Moun- 
tain forests,  in  their  native  State,  by  the  magical  pencil  of  Russel 
Smith,  a  native  artist.  To  more  intimately  and  thoroughly  study  and 
work  from  the  beautiful  models  of  the  mountain,  Mr.  Smith  has 
secured  a  rural  cabin  and  piece  of  land  near  the  "Alleghany 
Springs"  and  Pennsylvania  Railroad  summit,  where,  in  his  own 
words,  "some  of  the  brightest  and  grandest  moments  of  my"life 
have  been  passed." 


228  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

cial  feature  to  its  foliage,  it  bears  a  superb  flower,  as  rich  and 
varied  almost,  in  its  tints  and  style,  as  the  tulip  of  the  gar- 
dens. "  Erect  as  a  sunbeam"  its  stem  sometimes  shoots  into  a 
splendid  shaft,  almost  a  hundred  feet  in  height  without  a 
limb,  and  then  branches  into  a  kingly  diadem,  or  veritable 
CROWN  of  leaves  and  flowers.  This  shape  has  been  frequently 
described  already  as  peculiar  to  the  trees  growing  in  deep 
forests.  In  the  tulip-tree  it  is  perhaps  the  most  striking 
of  all.  As  its  enormous  trunk,  fluted  by  a  deeply-grooved 
bark  of  a  silver-gray  color,  carries  an  almost  unaltering  thick- 
ness throughout  its  entire  height,  the  imagination  requires 
no  assistance  to  behold  its  mass  of  verdure  and  beauty  grow- 
ing from  the  summit  of  some  majestic  marble  column  "  on 
Grecian  wold."  It  is  one  of  the  valuable  lumber-trees  of 
the  mountain. 

TILIA  AMERICANA. — This  is  the  linden  or  bass-wood, 
"lime-tree,"  and  "white  wood,"  a  beautiful  and  noble  tree, 
attaining  to  over  100  feet  in  height.  In  deep  groves  it 
has  also  the  characteristic  form  of  mountain  trees,  that  is, 
with  tall,  straight,  branchless  stem,  terminating  in  a  mass  of 
boughs,  spray,  and  leaves,  which,  together  with  its  smooth, 
graceful  trunk  covered  by  white  finely-ribbed  bark,  presents 
one  of  the  most  striking  and  beautiful  denizens  of  the  woods. 
The  species  "  heterophylla"  is  also  found  on  the  mountain. 
The  lumber  of  the  linden  sells  under  the  name  of  "  white- 
wood,"  with  poplar  and  cucumber. 

BETULA. — The  Birch  Family  have  several  representatives 
here.  These  are  the  BETULA  LENTA,  "nigra,"  "excelsa," 
and  "papyracea."  Some  of  them  grow  into  large  trees,  as 
the  "  lenla"  and  "nigra,"  which  are  often  found  ninety  feet 
high.  The  wood  of  the  well-known  sweet,  or  cherry-birch, 
the  "  lenta,"  is  valuable,  giving  a  fine-grained  red  lumber, 
and  good  fuel. 

QUERCUS. — Several  of  the  oak  group  are  found  here,  and 
among  them  the  QUERCUS  ALBA,  or  familiar  and  valuable 
white  oak.  It  does  not  grow  in  these  localities,  as  in  the 
Appalachian  valleys,  in  continuous  groves,  but  is  found 


FLORA    OF   THE   MOUNTAIN.  229 

mixed  in  forests  of  other  trees  of  the  noblest  proportions, 
which  it  ever  assumes  in  any  soil. 

QUERCUS  MONTANA  affects  the  eastern  slopes  and  sum- 
mits, having  a  taste,  as  its  common  name  indicates,  (rock 
chestnut-oak,)  for  rugged  and  stony  surfaces.  Associated 
with  the  last  species  is  the  "castanea,"  and  scattered  in  dif- 
ferent localities  over  the  mountain  are  the  "nigra,"  "tinc- 
toria,"  "coccinea,"  "rubra,"  and  "falcata."  From  the 
size  to  which  many  of  these  species  grow,  it  would  seem 
that  here  must  be  a  special  home  of  the  oaks.* 

CASTANEA. — The  chestnut  has  a  special  affinity  for  the 
mountain.  The  CASTANEA  VESCA  grows  here  to  a  pro- 
digious size,  living  ages.  It  bears  the  familiar  well-known 
sweet  nut,  and  has  an  extremely  rugged  bark,  covering  a 
coarse-grained,  light  wood,  especially  prized  for  its  inde- 
structibility as  a  fencing  material.  The  CASTANEA  PUMILA 
or  chinquepin,  grows  here  also. 

NYSSA  MULTIFLORA. — The  tupelo,  black  or  sour  gum, 
grows  sparsely  over  the  mountain,  presenting  its  ordinary 
characters  in  other  localities. 

PLATANUS  OCCIDENTALIS. — The  American  plane,  syca- 
more, or  buttonwood,  is  found  on  the  streams  at  the  base 
and  on  the  table-lands  of  the  Alleghanies,  but  not  on  its 

*  In  connection  with  oaks,  a  word  on  the  progressive  instincts  of 
the  Pennsy Iranians  may  be  in  place.  It  has  arranged  itself  on  the 
record  that  it  required  the  lumber-men  of  Maine  to  come  to  Pennsyl- 
vania to  show  her  mountaineers  the  value  of  their  forests,  the 
"Yankee  stave-cutter"  having  been  a  pioneer  in  one  of  the  most 
valuable  lumber  specialties  of  the  mountain  and  the  State.  Tran- 
scendent Yankee!!  his  sharpness  is  past  finding  out;  he  cuts  the 
"trees  that  twist  with  the  sun,"  saying,  that  those  which  "twist 
against  the  sun  will  not  hold  molasses."  Curious  problem  in  the 
philosophy  of  kinks;  it  seems  that  the  refractory  saccharine  principle 
of  the  South  requires  a  special  twist  of  a  special  Northern  oak 
to  hold  it  level,  and  this,  too,  by  the  special  twist  "with  the  sun,"  and 
not  "against  it."  When  will  Pennsylvanians  wake  up  to  the  special 
twists  of  Northern  Fanatics  and  Southern  Salamanders,  both  with 
and  against  the  sun? 

20 


230  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

summits.  Its  snow-white  stems,  mingled  with  the  sombre 
hemlock,  forms  one  of  the  finest  and  most  striking  contrasts 
in  nature.  Its  lumber  is  valued  for  some  purposes. 

The  MORUS  RUBRA,  or  "  Mulberry-tree,"  grows  in  per- 
fection here. 

JUGLANS. — The  species  cinerea  (butternut)  of  this  genus 
is  found  in  great  abundance  along  the  streams  in  the  gorges, 
also  higher  up  the  mountain.  The  "nigra,"  or  "black 
walnut,"  is  also  found,  but  not  in  such  quantity. 

GARY  A. — There  are  several  species  of  hickory  on  the 
mountain.  The  "alba,"  or  shell-bark,  grows  here  with  its 
usual  characters,  but  is  not  abundant.  The  "  sulcata"  grows 
along  the  base  of  the  mountain,  and  in  the  little  valleys  of 
the  streams.  The  "tomentosa"  and  "  microcarpa"  are  here, 
but  not  abundant.  The  species  uglabra"  is  very  common 
on  the  Alleghany  and  some  of  its  parallel  ridges,  constituting 
quite  an  article  of  commerce,  the  young,  tough  sprouts  being 
sold  for  hoop-poles  in  immense  quantities.  The  "amara"  is 
also  found  here.  Several  of  this  genus  are  but  small  and 
insignificant  trees  on  the  mountain. 

POPULUS. — Of  this  genus  there  are  several  species,  as  the 
" tremuloides,"  or  "aspen,"  the  " grandidentata,"  or  long- 
toothed  aspen,  the  "candicans,"  and  " heterophylla."  These 
are  graceful  and  attractive  trees,  generally  with  smooth  stems 
and  beautiful  foliage,  but  do  not  grow  in  the  deep  forests 
with  the  large,  rough,  mountain  trees. 

The  ROBINIA  PSEUDACACIA,  or  common  locust,  grows 
in  profusion  on  the  mountain.  It  frequently  achieves  the 
proportions  of  a  considerable  tree,  and  is  valuable  as  an  in- 
destructible timber.* 

SAUX. — A  number  of  willows  have  made  their  home  on 
the  mountain,  both  of  the  tree  and  bush  form.  Several  of 

*  On  the  question  of  its  indestructibility,  see  Canal  Commissioners' 
Reports  generally  of  the  Portage  Railroad  of  the  State,  on  the 
eternity  of  locust  crossties,  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  ship,  the 
horses,  and  the  plough,  overshadowed  by  the  protective  wings  of  the 
American  eagle — Virtue,  Liberty,  and  Independence. 


FLORA   OF   THE    MOUNTAIN.  231 

the  trees  are  familiar  and  handsome,  but  more  of  the  genus 
are  plain  unostentatious  shrubs. 

These  are  the  principal  trees  which  are  found  in  the 
forests  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains  in  Pennsylvania. 
The  poet  might  make  a  book  of  biography,  and  the 
artist  a  gallery  of  paintings  of  these  splendid  trees  alone. 
An  enumeration  of  some  of  the  most  striking  trees  or  larger 
forms  of  the  vegetable  world  is  all  that  has  been  produced 
as  the  living  mantle  or  robes  of  life  and  organic  appendage 
to  the  mountain,  viewed  individually,  and  in  the  concrete, 
or  masses  of  woods.  What  fills  with  amazement  the  ex- 
plorer of  these  forests  is  the  thickness  or  density  of  the 
growth,  and  enormous  size  of  the  trees.  He  is  troubled  to 
conceive  how  these  huge  and  thickly-planted  trunks,  which 
seem  to  have  scarcely  room  to  stand,  are  nourished,  or  grow 
in  the  limited  space  allotted  to  each  tree.  Such  pyramids  of 
wood  might  be  supposed  to  require  some  base  to  support 
them,  but  the  trees  are  so  crowded,  that  were  not  the  surface 
of  the  earth  the  chained  continuity  of  interlocked  roots  that 
it  is,  they  could  not  stand.  Where  the  axe  commences  to  fell 
these  forests,  and  trees  are  left  standing  alone,  they  soon 
fall  to  the  earth  for  want  of  the  support  and  protection 
of  the  surrounding  mass.  The  woods  are  so  dense  as  to  be 
almost  impenetrable,  the  under-growth  frequently  having 
disappeared  entirely,  the  branchless  and  naked  trunks, 
supporting,  only  on  their  summits,  a  canopy  of  leaf-bearing 
branches.  In  some  of  these  forests  the  fallen  stems  of  im- 
mense trees,  that  have  died  of  old  age,  half  cover  the 
ground.  Here,  in  deep  shadows  and  silence,  sleep  the  mo- 
narchs  of  the  forest,  silent  and  sequestered,  the  dark  soli- 
tudes furnishing  a  suitable  graveyard  for  these  heroes  of  a 
thousand  storms,  each  one  reposing  as  he  fell,  for  now 

"  Low  lies  the  plant  to  whose  creation  went 
Sweet  influence  from  every  element ; 
Whose  living  towers  the  years  conspired  to  build, 
Whose  giddy  top  the  morning  loved  to  gild." 


232  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

They  sleep,  while  ever-busy  Nature  clothes  each  prostrate 
form  with  a  shroud  of  verdant  mosses, — thus  it  is 

"  Out  of  sleeping,  awaking, 
Out  of  waking,  asleep  ; 
Life  death  overtaking ; 
Deep  underneath  deep  /" 

The  general  aspect  of  these  forests,  with  their  different 
changes  in  the  procession  of  the  seasons,  must  strike  the 
most  careless  observer.  During  the  winter  they  are  stark  and 
stern,  the  evergreen  forests  affording  but  a  gloomy  contrast, 
their  dark-green  foliage  scarcely  suggesting  the  thought  of 
life,  while  the  ceaseless  moan  of  the  cold  and  naked  stems 
speaks  only  of  death  to  the  wolfish  winds. 

Occasionally,  in  the  winter  forests,  a  phenomenon  occurs 
of  surpassing  wonder.  This  is  the  sudden  transition  or 
transmutation,  frequently  during  the  night,  as  if  by  some 
magical  power,  of  the  whole  forest  of  trees  into  a  forest 
of  glass.  The  mists,  rains,  and  air  charged  with  moist- 
ure, invest  the  tree-trunks,  branches,  and  twigs  with  a 
clothing  of  ice,  clear  as  crystal,  so  that  the  woods  seem 
invested  with  an  unrivaled  splendor.  This  glittering  and 
phantasmal  array  must  be  seen  to  be  appreciated  or  con- 
ceived. 

The  phenomenon  of  the  hoar-frost  is  allied  to  this  glass 
metamorphosis.  This  is  the  investment  of  each  finest  fibre 
of  the  woods  with  a  snowy,  crystalline,  and  sparkling  velvet 
of  frost,  the  air  being  filled  with  floating  and  brilliant 
spangles,  detached  by  the  slightest  breath  of  wind. 

The  vernal  change  is  most  genial  and  striking.  After 
the  long  death-sleep  of  the  winter,  as  is  the  case  in 
northern  latitudes,  the  leaves  and  flowers,  with  the  first 
sun-fires,  flash  out  upon  the  air  with  an  endless  succession  of 
tints,  forms,  and  outlines.  The  shades  of  green  of  the 
young  foliage  are  numerous,  giving  a  different  appear- 
ance to  each  newly-arrayed  tree.  Each  plant  is  peculiar 
in  the  character  of  its  new-born  leaves  ;  sometimes,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  beech,  dropping  from  the  twig  a  soft  and  deli- 


FLORA   OF   THE    MOUNTAIN.  233 

cate  membrane  that  floats  like  a  cobweb  in  the  air ;  again, 
as  in  the  chestnut,  hanging  sullenly  as  if  wilted ;  or,  again, 
as  in  the  oak  and  maple  family,  obtruding  their  more  angu- 
lar leaflets,  which  stick  out  rigidly  from  the  terminal  twigs. 
Each  tree  has  a  form  or  physiognomy  for  its  new-born  leaf, 
also  for  the  perfect  organ  or  full-grown  leaf,  and  these  dif- 
ferent aspects  show  trees  as  entirely  unlike  each  other,  in  the 
different  stages  of  unfolding,  as  the  callow  bird  in  the  nest 
is  unlike  the  full-plumed  and  perfect  adult.  Even  the  grave 
evergreens  assume  a  new  countenance  in  the  spring  from  the 
protrusion  of  their  annual  growth  of  twigs  which  are  covered 
with  exceedingly  delicate  light-green  leaves,  giving  to  the 
tree,  at  this  time,  a  gay  and  cheerful  look.  This  fresh 
livery  of  the  vernal  forests  forever  inspires  with  joy  and 
hopefulness ;  for  it  is  the  time  when  the  world  and  the  soul 
are  full  of  promise.  With  electrical  enchantment  the  spirit 
of  the  woods  reaches  the  spirit  of  the  man,  and  he  expands 
and  vibrates  with  the  budding  and  unfolding  leaf,  "for  man 
is  one  world,  and  hath  another  to  attend  him." 

The  vernal  sounds  of  the  woods  are  also  striking  and  cha- 
racteristic, appropriate  and  fit,  as  are  all  the  harmonies  of  the 
wild.  The  soft,  young  leaf  has  not  yet  arrived  at  firmness 
enough  to  rustle  or  creak,  and  the  boiling,  simmering,  far- 
off  storm  and  ocean-sound  is  not  distinctly  heard  at  this 
season.  A  soft,  muffled  whisper,  a  wavy,  stifled  murmur,  is 
all  that  the  wind  can  make,  the  delicate,  drooping  leaflet 
having  no  vibratory  consistency,  and  consequently  the  ac- 
cumulated sound  is  a  simple,  monotonous  breathing  of  the 
air  through  the  moist,  sappy  lungs  of  the  forest. 

As  the  foliage  is  perfected,  and  the  summer  change 
comes  on,  the  whole  leaf-garment  assumes  an  entirely 
different  expression.  The  monotonous  dark-green  of  the 
fully-developed  summer-dress  of  the  trees  gives  the  wood, 
with  its  different  plants,  a  more  uniform  aspect.  In  full 
array  the  forest  is  certainly  richer  and  grander  in  this  display 
of  the  life-powers,  but  it  lacks  the  variety  of  the  vernal  tints. 
The  color  of  all  the  leaves  gradually  darkens  in  hue  as 

20* 


234  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

they  are  perfected  for  the  execution  of  their  work, — the 
nourishment  and  re-creation  of  the  tree.  This  darkened 
tint  is  gradually  increased  as  the  leaf  hardens  and  ap- 
proaches its  death-hour — the  arrival  of  the  frost.  Some 
time  before  this,  however,  the  woods  present,  for  an 
interval,  a  sameness  of  feature,  as  if  the  leaves  were 
silently  at  work,  and  had  no  time  to  give  to  the  phases 
of  beauty,  but  were  hurrying  up  the  execution  of  their  func- 
tion to  pass  away  into  the  sleep  of  death.  At  this  time  the 
full-grown,  hard,  and  stiffened  leaves  give  to  the  woods  the 
sounds  or  characteristic  summer- voices, — that  seething  and 
singing  which  is  the  result  of  infinite  friction  and  vibra- 
tion of  the  hard,  turgid,  and  perfectly  developed  foliage  of 
all  the  trees.  The  roar  of  the  woods,  that  great  respi- 
ratory murmur,  has  now  assumed  a  tone  that  cannot  be  mis- 
taken, and  the  storm-winds  can  "howl  with  the  voices  of  all 
the  gods."  The  hour  of  dissolution  arrives  as  the  autumn 
approaches.  At  this  season  a  change  occurs,  the  most  ex- 
traordinary of  all  in  the  life  of  the  leaf,  and  gives  to  the 
forests  of  the  mountain  a  richness  of  expression,  an  end- 
lessness of  variety  unrivaled  upon  the  earth.  This  first 
touch  of  the  destroyer  is,  perhaps,  the  most  extraordinary 
phenomenon  of  the  whole  vegetable-world,  and,  indeed,  the 
most  wonderful  aspect  which  Nature  reveals. 

"  So  fair,  so  calm,  so  softly  seal'd, 
The  first,  last  look  by  death  reveal'd, 
Before  Decay's  effacing  fingers 
Have  swept  the  lines  where  beauty  lingers." 
The  pageantry  of  the  American  forest  in  autumn  has  ever 
been  the  theme  of  the  poet's  song  and  subject  of  the  pain- 
ter's pencil.     It  is  exhaustless,  as  beauty  is  ever  that  fresh- 
water jet,  that  divine  halitus,  that  ever-living  sap  of  ex- 
istence, circulating  up  "from  the  far-away  centre  of  all 
things,"  and  which   each  moment  of  time  creates  for  the 
soul  a  rapture,  brightly  renewed  forever.     As  this  element 
of  Nature  is  intangible,  ethereal,  and  cannot  be  appro- 
priated, it  is  consequently,  to  the  spirit  of  man,  unattain- 
able, inexhaustible,  divine. 


FLORA    OF   THE    MOUNTAIN.  235 

It  is  especially  the  Alleghany  Mountain  which  reveals  the 
perfect  and  perpetual  wonder  of  the  American  autumn, — a 
chapter  of  the  beauty  of  the  world  for  which  the  old  con- 
tinents have  no  parallel,  and  the  earth's  surface  but  one 
such  spectacle.  This  comes  of  the  extensive  variety  and 
mixture  of  deciduous  trees,  also  of  the  mingling  of  this  nu- 
merous class  with  the  evergreen  trees,  in  the  woods  of  the 
mountain.  Each  tree  has  a  regular  series  of  colors,  or 
hues  and  shades  of  color,  through  which  its  leaf  passes, 
after  the  death-stroke  of  the  frost.  These  are  of  an  end- 
less variety,  and  of  the  most  extraordinary  brilliancy. 
The  solar  spectrum  is  exhausted  in  this  fantastic  display 
of  colors.  A  single  tree  sometimes  stands  a  pillar  of  fire, 
or  a  glittering  cloud  of  gold  and  purple,  while  again, 
the  crimson  blood-dye  is  succeeded  by  a  tree  which  has 
taken  its  hue  from  the  gaudy  yellow  of  the  nasturtion's 
cup,  or  the  "  dolphin's  back  of  gold." 

Thus  the  brilliant  and  diversified  phenomenal  has  taken 
its  most  gorgeous  robes  from  the  tints  of  the  autumnal 
forest.  These  phantom-pictures,  like  the  other  multiform 
phases  of  the  woods,  are  transitory,  and  soon  pass  away, 
this  whole  world,  vivid  and  flashing,  being  remembered  like 
the  pomp  and  pageantry  of  some  splendid  dream.  Once 
seen  it  can  never  be  forgotten.  To  the  bright  coloring  of 
the  groves  gradually  but  quickly  succeeds  the  russet  hue  of 
the  dead  and  withered  leaf,  the  d&Yk-brown,  in  which  it 
moulders  away  into  dust.  At  length  the  death-dirge  of 
the  vanishing  foliage  is  sung,  and  the  monotonous  gray  of 
naked  trees,  relieved  only  by  the  dark-green  of  the  pines,  is 
the  color  of  the  woods,  while  the  ceaseless  whistle  of  the 
winter  winds  chills  the  heart  with  the  thought  of  that  cold- 
ness which  shall  know  no  warmth,  and  of  that  sleep  which 
shall  know  no  waking. 

The  forests  of  the  Alleghany,  in  utility  and  beauty,  are 
as  exhaustless  as  its  rocks  and  coal,  its  ocean  of  air,  and 
streams  of  water,  and  present  a  chapter  of  ceaseless  and 
perfect  attractions. 


236  THE   MOUNTAIN. 


THE  UNDERWOOD,  BUSH,  OR   HEATH-GROWTH 
OF  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

THE  transition,  from  the  regular  forest-tree  to  the  shrub 
or  bush,  is  gradual.  That  portion  of  the  forest  which  is 
called  heath,  or  coppice,  is  composed  of  true  woody  plants — 
that  is,  plants  formed  of  woody  fibre,  with  perennial  roots 
and  stems,  and  either  evergreen  or  deciduous  leaves. 

On  the  mountain  the  representatives  of  this  department 
are  numerous.  Some  of  these  plants  have  the  dimensions 
of  small  trees,  but  never  grow  to  what  are  called  forest- 
trees,  and  many  of  them  are  of  exceeding  beauty,  and  some 
of  value.  Where  the  growth  of  other  larger  trees  permits 
it,  they  form  clusters  highly  ornamental,  filling  the  mid-air 
spaces  of  the  taller  trees  with  an  array  of  foliage  sometimes 
in  fine  contrast  with  the  leaves  of  the  larger  varieties.  As 
a  class,  they  are  comely  and  attractive,  and  occupy  spaces 
that  seemed  otherwise  to  be  vacant.  Many  of  them  belong 
to  classes  of  larger  trees,  and  have  been  already  enumerated 
among  them,  as  the  smaller  species  of  Acer,  Cerasus,  but 
never  grow  beyond  a  few  inches  in  diameter  of  stem.  To 
them,  in  the  descending  scale,  succeeds  the  order  of  true 
shrubs.  Of  this  class  of.  small,  woody  plants  there  is  an  ex- 
tensive and  diversified  field.  A  perfect  catalogue  in  this 
department  would  be  an  agreeable  undertaking,  but  such  a 
task  could  not  be  attempted  in  a  running  schedule.  A  few 
of  the  prominent  species  are  all  that  can  be  enumerated  now, 
and,  to  commence  with  some  of  the  smaller  plants  connect- 
ing the  bush  of  the  mountain  with  the  forest-tree,  take  the 
genus  OSTRYA.  This  is  the  hop-hornbeam,  or  iron- wood. 
The  species  VIRGINICA  grows  here,  often  achieving  forty-five 
feet  in  height.  The  hard,  compact  wood  of  this  little  tree 
is  useful,  and  the  tree  graceful  in  its  form. 

CARPINUS  AMERICANA  is  an  allied  plant,  smaller  in  dimen- 


FLORA   OF    THE    MOUNTAIN.  237 

sions,  and  with  smoother  bark,  but  resembling  the  Ostrya  in 
foliage,  inflorescence,  and  fruit. 

CRAT^EGUS. — Several  of  the  hawthorns  grow  on  the  moun- 
tain. The  shape  of  this  hardy  little  scavenger  family  is 
uniform,  whatever  may  be  its  locality.  On  the  mountain  it 
shows  its  usual  noli-me-tangere  roughness  of  thorns  and 
scraggy  branches,  bright,  beautiful  blossoms  with  pleasant 
odors  knotty,  and  blood-red  fruit,  etc.  As  they  are  not 
used  for  hedges  or  anything  else,  they  seem,  like  many  other 
objects,  to  exist  for  beauty  and  sweetness  alone.  The  species 
here  are  coccinea,  tomentosa,  crus-galli,  and  punctata. 

CORNUS. — Species  "Florida"  of  this  genus  is  found  on 
the  eastern  slopes  of  the  mountain,  but  not  on  the  summits 
or  western  sides  in  any  quantity.  Its  flashing  white  flowers 
are  occasionally  seen  in  the  ravines,  where  the  plant  grows 
with  other  trees.  It  exhibits  its  usual  characters. 

The  "  Sericea"  and  "circinata"  are  also  found  there. 
The  "  Canadensis,"  or  "dwarf  cornel,"  is  found  on  the 
parallel  Appalachian  ridges. 

CERCIS  CANADENSIS,  or  Judas-tree,  is  found  sparingly  dis- 
tributed, low  on  the  slopes  of  the  mountain.  It  is  a  small, 
handsome  tree,  showing  its  usual  characters. 

ARALIA  SPINOSA  is  a  low,  rough  little  tree,  called  some- 
times the  "devil's  club."  It  grows  abundantly  in  a  variety 
of  localities  on  different  parts  of  the  mountain.  Its  large, 
prickly,  pinnate  leaves,  and  rugged  spiniferous  stem,  has  so 
strange  an  expression  as  to  attract  much  attention  and 
remark. 

ALNUS. — Species  "  incctna,"  is  a  small  tree,  often  twenty- 
five  feet  high.  It  is  found  along  the  streams  of  the  table- 
lands. 

Leaving  the  small  trees,  and  descending  to  the  bushes 
proper,  we  are  presented  with  a  large  number  of  interesting 
plants  on  the  mountain.  The  most  distinguished  group  of 
this  smaller  class  of  plants  which  does  not  exhibit  the  tree 
form,  is  the  order  ERICACEAE,  or  Heath  Family.  Some  of 
the  genera  of  this  order  are  deciduous  plants,  but  of  ex- 


238  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

treme  beauty  and  splendor  of  flowering.  Others  are  ever- 
green, and  give  a  characteristic  expression  to  woods  of 
which  they  are  the  undergrowth. 

Of  the  SUB-ORDER  I.  VACCINES,  or  Whortleberry  Family, 
the  mountain  has  a  number  of  genera. 

GAYLUSSACIA. — Of  this  genus  there  are  three  species, 
"  resinosa,"  "frondosa,"  and  "dumosa,"  on  the  Alleghany, 
the  two  first  named  being  highly  esteemed  for  their  delight- 
ful fruit. 

In  many  of  the  mountain  districts  the  huckleberry  is  con- 
sidered not  only  innocent  as  an  article  of  food,  but  to  be 
endowed  with  certain  medicinal  properties.  Many  of  the 
bare  knobs  and  barren  heights  of  the  mountain  are  covered 
by  the  whortleberry,  giving  varieties  of  fruit,  which  ripen  in 
different  seasons.  The  family  is  very  hardy,  requiring  only 
the  "  drifting  sand-heap"  for  a  resting-place. 

YACCINIUM,  or  bilberry.  Species  "  Macrocarpon,"  or 
American  cranberry,  is  found  on  many  of  the  parallel  moun- 
tains, and  in  some  localities  on  the  Alleghany  itself,  (from  re- 
port,) but  is  not  abundant.  The  stamineum,  Canadense, 
Pennsylvdnicum,  pdllidum,  fuscdtum,  and  corymbosom, 
grow  there.  Some  of  these  species  are  tall,  graceful  bushes, 
twelve  feet  high,  and  bear  large,  black  and  blue  berries. 
The  large,  delicious,  "  blue  huckleberry p,"  is  obtained  from 
the  Pennsylvdnicum.  The  Vitis-Idcea  bears  a  red,  flesh- 
colored  berry,  but  bitter  and  acid,  without  much  flavor. 
Some  of  these  "big  huckleberries,"  as  they  are  called,  are 
found  in  moist  places,  others  on  dry  hills  and  open  woods. 

SUB-ORDER  II. — ERICINE^,  or  Proper  Heath  Family. 
Tribe,  ANDROMEDE^E.  Two  genera  of  this  tribe  are  small, 
creeping  plants.  They  are  the  Gaultheria  procumbens, 
creeping  wintergreen  or  mountain-tea,  and  the  Epigcea  re- 
pens,  ground-laurel.  The  genus  ANDR6MEDA  contains  a 
number  of  handsome  bushes,  and  one  tree,  arborea.  The 
species  on  the  mountain  are  the  calyculdta,  racemosa, 
Mariana,  Ligustrina,  several  of  which  are  tall  and  comely 
shrubs. 


FLORA   OF   THE   MOUNTAIN.  239 

Some  of  the  Andromedas  are  found  in  moist,  barren 
spaces  or  sandy  tracts,  and,  like  the  whortleberries,  seem  to 
have  strong  affinities  for  desolate  and  unreclaimed  wastes. 
Some  of  them  are  found  in  sphagnous  swamps,  and  alto- 
gether realize,  in  the  habits  of  growth  of  some  of  the  species 
at  least,  the  spirit  of  the  poetry  of  the  name  they  bear, 
"the  fabled  exposure  of  Andromeda  the  unhappy." 

Tribe  RHODORE^E. — Several  genera  of  this  noble  tribe  are 
found  on  the  Alleghanies. 

AZALEA,  False  Honeysuckle. — There  are  here  several 
species  of  this  plant,  generally  fine  flowering  bushes,  with  a 
brilliant  array  of  colors  in  their  inflorescence,  and  possessing 
delicate  odors,  which  fill  the  air  of  the  woods  with  a  charm- 
ing perfume.  They  are  extensively  distributed  over  the 
mountain,  and  are  frequently  mingled  in  dense  brakes  or 
heaths  of  other  bushes  of  the  same  natural  order. 

AZALEA  ARBORESCENS  is  a  fine  bush,  twelve  feet  high, 
bearing  large,  red,  fragrant  blossoms. 

"  VISCOSA,"  Clammy,  or  White  Honeysuckle,  is  here.  It 
is  a  beautiful  shrub,  ten  feet  high,  with  white  rose-tinted 
flowers  in  large  clusters,  which  are  very  fragrant. 

"NUDIFLORA,"  or  Purple  Azalea,  is  a  bush  five  feet  high, 
bearing  a  purple  and  showy  flower.  It  is  one  of  the  hand- 
somest species,  and  has  a  great  many  varieties. 

The  "  CALENDULACEA,"  or  Yellow  Azalea,  also  grows  on 
the  mountain.  It  is  a  tall  bush,  twelve  feet  high,  bearing 
orange-colored  blossoms,  and  giving  brilliancy  and  light  to 
the  copse  where  it  grows. 

Of  evergreen  shrubs  or  bushy-plants  of  this  order,  the 
"  KALMIA"  and  "  RHODODENDRON"  are  the  principal. 

The  "KALMIA,"  or  American  Laurel,  is  a  well-known 
plant,  growing  on  all  the  mountains  of  the  Middle  and 
Northern  States.  It  is  much  esteemed  for  its  richly- 
varnished  evergreen  leaves,  and  its  splendid  array  of  deli- 
cately-tinted flowers.  It  frequently  grows  in  dense  brakes 
in  cool,  moist  forests,  forming  what  are  called  "  laurel 
thickets." 


240  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

The  KALMIA  LATIFOLIA,  or  Mountain  Laurel,  abounds 
on  the  Alleghanies,  and  is  the  only  species  of  the  genus  found 
here.  In  the  dense  thickets  in  which  it  grows  it  is  frequently 
seen  twenty  feet  high,  with  long,  knotty  roots  and  twisted 
stems.  It  grows  abundantly  on  almost  every  part  of  the  moun- 
tain, and  is  found  in  immense  continuous  brakes,  frequently 
under  dense  masses  of  forest-trees,  seeming  not  to  be  affected 
by  the  absence  of  light  in  such  places.  It  bears  a  profusion 
of  beautiful  white  and  rose-colored  flowers,  which  are  much 
admired.  The  leaves  and  fruit  of  this  plant  are  poisonous. 

But  by  far  the  most  beautiful  individual  of  this  order,  the 
real  pride  of  the  mountain,  is  the  "  RHODODENDRON,"  or 
Rose-Bay  tree.  This  splendid  plant,  which  is  generally 
called  "big  laurel,"  is  not  a  laurel,  but  closely  allied  to  it. 
It  belongs,  with  the  laurel,  as  we  have  just  seen,  to  the  family 
of  heaths,  or  natural  order  Ericaceae,  sub-order  Ericinese,  and 
tribe  Rhodorese.  It  differs  from  the  laurel  very  essentially, 
forming  a  separate  genus  called  Rhododendron,  the  proper 
botanical  name  of  the  laurel,  as  has  just  been  stated,  being 
Kalmia.  Unlike  the  latter,  it  is  not  poisonous,  and  differs 
in  its  foliage  and  inflorescence,  being  a  much  more  im- 
perial and  distinguished  plant.  With  the  common  laurel  it 
covers  considerable  tracts  of  the  mountain  forests,  and,  like 
that  plant,  it  seeks  the  cool,  sequestered  shades  of  the 
deepest  wilds,  preferring  the  banks  of  mountain  streams 
and  unfrequented  places.  A  splendid  savage,  he  lives  upon 
the  sand-soil  in  the  roughest  parts  of  the  mountain,  flourish- 
ing, like  an  imperial  chief  of  his  order,  in  unapproachable 
seclusion.  Sometimes,  with  the  common  laurel,  it  forms 
dense  groves,  called  "  laurel  swamps," — very  improperly, 
however,  as  they  are  not  water  plants,  and  will  not  grow  in 
swamps.  Together,  they  form  thickets,  so  dense  and  inter- 
woven that  it  is  almost  impossible  for  man  or  animal  to  pass 
through  them,  thus  making  a  wall  as  impenetrable  as  a 
Mexican  chaparral.  They  have  been,  from  time  immemorial, 
the  terror  of  the  huntsman,  as  his  life  was  in  danger  if  he 


FLORA   OF   THE   MOUNTAIN.  241 

attempted  to  penetrate  their  inextricable  labyrinths.*  They 
are  also  the  horror  of  the  husbandman  who  has  the  audacity 
to  attempt  to  clear  the  surface  where  they  grow ;  but  espe- 
cially are  they  the  trouble  of  the  surveyor,  who,  with  transit 
and  compass,  axe  and  chain,  intrudes  upon  them.  Many  a 
youthful  engineer  will  remember  the  days  of  his  chain- 
carrying  and  rod-fixing  through  these  thickets,  and  how  fre- 
quently he  found  himself  enveloped  to  the  chin  by  a  net  of 
iron  thongs,  which  held  him  like  the  jaws  of  an  insidious 
trap. 

The  style  of  growth  of  the  Rhododendron  is  peculiar. 
The  stems  writhe  and  twist  themselves  together  in  every 
conceivable  shape  of  knots  and  tortuosities,  and  wherever 
the  branches  touch  the  ground  they  strike  root,  and  the 
plant  grows  afresh  from  this  point ;  it  is  thus  that  an  inter- 
laced web  of  stems,  almost  as  stiff  and  hard  as  iron,  is 
stretched  over  large  extents,  which  are  as  impassable  as  cane- 
brakes.  The  traveler  who  attempts  to  traverse  these  thickets 
finds  himself  continually  caught  by  loops  and  dead-falls. 
The  lover  of  the  beauty  of  the  woods,  however,  will  find  in 
these  sylvan  labyrinths,  these  evergreen  seas  of  living  plants, 
an  attractive  department  of  the  Mountain  Flora.  During 
the  inflorescence  of  this  plant  it  is  impossible  to  con- 
ceive of  anything  more  splendid  than  its  mass  of  flowers, 
which  are  borne  in  large  showy  terminal  corymbs  or  clus- 
ters. They  are  of  a  pale-rose  color,  and  sometimes  snow- 
white,  the  greenish  throat  of  each  blossom  being  spotted 
with  yellow  or  red.  Its  large,  thick,  coriaceous  leaves  fre- 
quently attain  the  length  of  a  foot.  During  winter  and  in 
intense  cold,  they  fold  or  coil  up  longitudinally,  each  leaf 
showing  a  roll  not  much  larger  than  a  cigar,  which  drops 
down  close  along  the  terminal  twigs  of  the  plant.  When  a 

*  The  engineer  corps  who  located  the  railroads  across  this  moun- 
tain chain,  discovered  the  skeletons  of  several  men  who  had  been 
lost  and  starved  to  death  in  these  thickets  of  Laurel  and  Rhododen- 
dron. 

21 


242  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

branch  in  this  condition  is  carried  into  a  heated  chamber, 
the  leaves  may  be  seen  expanding  and  rising  from  the  close 
compact  bunch,  and  assuming  the  flat  or  patent  attitude, 
the  points  stretching  upward  as  in  the  summer  air.  Under 
the  influence  of  very  severe  frost,  with  the  folded  condition 
of  the  leaf  described,  the  plant  exhibits  the  same  blackened, 
gloomy  appearance,  which  characterizes  the  evergreen  trees 
under  the  same  conditions. 

In  full  foliage  and  inflorescence  the  Rhododendron  stands 
the  monarch  of  the  American  heath,  and  always  impresses 
the  beholder  with  emotions  of  delight,  from  its  present- 
ing a  striking  contrast  with  the  more  homely  and  familiar 
forms  of  the  other  tribes  of  bushes.  Of  this  less  imposing, 
but  graceful  and  beautiful  department  of  the  mountain 
forests,  constituting  the  true  underwood  of  the  woodsman, 
there  are  many  plants  which  are  objects  of  attraction. 

The  HYDRANGEA  ARBORESCENS  is  a  bush  found  in  many 
parts  of  the  mountain.  This  plant,  like  some  of  the  ever- 
greens described,  seeks  the  gloom  of  the  depths  of  forests, 
its  white  flowers  and  dark-green  leaves,  in  shady  ravines  and 
woody  solitudes,  effecting  a  perpetual  surprise. 

HAMAMELIS  YIRGINIOA,  the  "Witch Hazel,"  a  tall  shrub, 
is  here,  as  elsewhere,  a  common  plant.  Late  in  the  autumn 
its  yellow  flowers  may  be  seen  among  the  dead  and  withered 
leaves  of  other  plants,  affording  a  strange  and  startling  con- 
trast with  the  surrounding  forms,  blooming,  when  their  blos- 
soms and  foliage  are  dead.  This  "weird"  shrub  stands  the 
noblest  symbol  of  the  true  and  loving  heart,  blooming  with 
promise  and  joy  in  the  midst  of  desolation  and  death. 

CORYLUS  AMERICANA  and  ROSTRATA  are  found  in  the 
mountain.  They  grow  on  its  slopes  and  the  vales  at  its 
base.  This  filbert  group  seem  to  have  an  affinity  for  the 
mountain. 

DIRCA  PALUSTRIS. — This  plant  grows  abundantly  along 
the  streams  in  ravines  and  small  vales.  It  is  interesting 
on  account  of  the  peculiar  kind  of  bark  of  the  plant, 


FLORA    OF   THE    MOUNTAIN.  243 

which  is  as  tough  as  leather,  consequently,  called  "  leather- 
wood." 

EUONYMUS  ATROPURPUREUS,  or  Spindle-tree,  is  found  here. 
It  is  a  showy  shrub  with  waxy,  crimson  fruit  hanging  by 
long  fruit-stalks. 

CEANOTHUS  AMERICANUS  grows  on  the  mountain,  in  cer- 
tain districts  quite  abundantly.  It  affords  excellent  brows- 
ing for  the  deer,  and  is  the  plant  used  by  the  soldiers  of  the 
Revolution  for  tea. 

ROSA. — Several  wild  roses  abound,  as  the  Lucida  blanda 
and  Carolina,  with  the  introduced  species  Rubiginosa  and 
Micrantha. 

RUBUS. — Several  species  of  this  interesting  genus  flourish 
here. 

RUBUS  ODORATUS,  or  Flowering  Raspberry,  grows  in  great 
abundance  and  in  the  finest  proportions.  It  shows  a  pro- 
fusion of  splendid  purple  flowers  from  June  until  August. 
These  flowers  often  exhibit  a  disk  of  two  inches  in  diameter, 
and  are  of  great  beauty.  The  Strigosus  and  Occidentalis 
are  found  with  their  usual  characters. 

The  YILLOSUS,  or  High  Blackberry,  is  found  in  the  great- 
est quantity.  This  hardy  bramble  flourishes  wherever  any 
kind,  even  the  poorest  and  roughest  soil,  exists.  Its  fruit 
is  produced  in  such  abundance  that  it  forms  one  of  the  crops 
of  the  mountain.  Some  varieties  occur. 

Species  CANADENSIS  (Dewberry)  grows  profusely. 

Rnus. — There  are  several  species  of  this  genus  here,  as 
the  "typhina,"  or  stag-horn  sumach,  "glabra,"  smooth 
sumach,  "copallina,"  dwarf  sumach,  and  "aromatica,"  or 
fragrant  sumach.  They  are  handsome  shrubs  with  graceful, 
delicate  foliage  and  acid  crimson  fruit.  The  poisonous  spe- 
cies, Yenenata  and  Toxicodrendron,  are  rarely  found  on  the 
mountain. 

TAXUS  BACCATA,  variety  CANADENSIS,  is  the  American  Yew 
or  Ground  Hemlock.  It  is  a  prostrate  trailing  bush,  found  in 
the  gorges  and  on  shaded  precipices  of  the  mountain.  It 


244  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

has  handsome,  shining  evergreen  leaves,  and  bears  a  berry- 
like  fruit  of  a  blood-red  color. 

YITIS. — The  grape  family  has  established  itself  on  the 
mountain.  The  "  labrusca"  is  found  in  moist  places,  de- 
veloping a  large  fruit  with  coarse  and  acrid  qualities.  This 
is  said  to  be  the  parent  stem  of  the  Isabella  grape,  a  variety 
much  improved  by  cultivation. 

Species  ^Estivalis  grows  in  great  profusion. 

Species  Cordifolia,  or  Frost  Grape,  grows  also  well. 

AMPELOPSIS  QUINQUEFOLIA,  Virginian  Creeper,  is  found 
here.  Its  crimson  foliage  in  autumn,  clinging  around 
stumps  and  trees,  gives  a  marked  feature  to  the  woods. 

CELASTRUS  SCANDENS,  or  "wax-work,"  occurs,  but  is  not 
abundant.  Its  yellow  pods,  displaying  scarlet-covered  seeds, 
are  esteemed  ornamental. 

AMELANCHIER  CANADENSIS,  or  Shad  Bush,  grows  pro- 
fusely on  the  mountain.  Several  of  the  varieties  described 
prevail,  as  the  "  botryapium"  and  "oblongifolia." 

SAMBUCUS  CANADENSIS,  or  Common  Elder,  abounds. 

Species  Pubens,  Red-berried  Elder,  is  found  in  great 
quantities,  especially  on  the  eastern  slopes  of  the  moun- 
tain. Its  bright-scarlet  berries,  ripening  in  June,  are 
borne  in  great  profusion,  looking  like  bunches  of  blood-red 
coral,  and  mingling  frequently  with  the  array  of  plants  in 
bloom  at  this  season,  the  splendid  Epilobium,  Phlox, 
Lobelia,  and  Flowering  Raspberry  with  broad  purple 
petals,  give  variety  and  unrivaled  splendor  to  these  floral 
groups. 

PYRUS  CORONARIA.  —  The  American  Crab- Apple  was 
omitted  in  the  list  of  small  trees.  It  sometimes  grows  to 
twenty-five  feet  in  height,  bearing  rose-colored  blossoms 
which  possess  a  delightful  fragrance.  A  variety,  not  so 
brambly  and  scraggy  as  the  common  crab,  occurs  here, 
with  taller  trunk,  cleaner  limbs,  and  much  larger  apple. 

The  Sassafras  and  Benzoin  are  also  found  here,  the  latter 
growing  profusely. 

PYRULARIA  (Mich.)  Oleifera,  Oil  Nut,  is  said  to  be  found 


FLORA   OF   THE   MOUNTAIN.  245 

on  the  "mountains  of  Pennsylvania,  near  the  Alleghanies." 
(Mich.,  Gray.) 

The  water-courses  and  humid  tracts  show  large  quantities 
of  several  small  species  of  the  genus  SALIX,  or  Willow. 
They  fringe  the  banks  of  mountain  brooks  and  springs,  and 
form  close,  compact  waving  masses,  or  osier  beds,  in  swampy 
spots.  The  Common  Alder  (Alnus  Serulata)  is  also  found 
in  some  places  covering  the  banks  of  streams  and  moist 
places,  seeking  with  characteristic  instinct  the  trails  of 
springs  and  fountains.  With  the  Willow,  being  essentially 
aquatic,  or  lovers  of  water  in  their  propensities,  their  pre- 
sence is  always  the  harbinger  of  the  appearance  of  that 
element,  their  groves  being  thus  the  true  haunts  of  the 
aquatic  gods,  or  " Water-walkers."  These  plants  form  a 
beautiful  and  characteristic  order  of  copse,  or  under-bush, 
their  wand-like  stems  and  peculiar  foliage  marking  them  dis- 
tinctly from  the  other  species  of  bush.  Thus  variety, 
which  seems  to  be  Nature's  perpetual  trick  to  enchant  her 
children  with  forms  of  beauty  and  elements  of  use,  here 
finds  a  stripe  of  newness  wherewithal  to  demand  attention 
and  admiration  A  descriptive  catalogue  of  all  the  moun- 
tain copse  would  be  an  attractive  chapter,  but  a  glimpse  at 
this  beautiful  department  must  satisfy  us  here. 

After  dwelling  on  the  lofty  and  imperial  dendroid  forms  of 
the  vegetable  world,  also  its  royal  families  of  smaller  shrubs, 
with  their  artistic  beauty  and  almost  regal  pomp  of  orna- 
ment and  extravagance  of  dress,  another  class  of  plants, 
still  less  imposing,  but  more  graceful  and  lovely,  press  upon 
the  attention  of  the  wandererer  in  the  mountain  woods. 
This  is  the  world  of  flowers,  so  called,  as  if  perhaps  they 
existed  to  flower  alone,  and  had  no  account  to  render  of 
themselves,  but  that  they  were  revelations  of  the  splendor 
and  perfection  of  things,  and  brought  messages  of  light  and 
gladness  to  the  soul.  Of  this  numerous  class  many  are 
found  distributed  over  the  Alleghany.  They  are  the  fairest, 
frailest,  and  most  evanescent  of  all  vegetable  forms,  spring- 

21* 


246  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

ing  from  the  earth  each  season,  germinating,  flowering,  and 
seeding,  then  withering  and  dying,  having  but  one  short 
summer  to  publish  their  little  lives,  "sparkle,  and  expire." 
These  many-painted  forms  rise  as  if  by  magic;  endless 
variety  in  unity,  and  unity  in  endless  variety,  is  the  song 
they  sing.  In  this  world  the  graces  and  loves  seem  to 
reign,  for  of  the  grace  and  beauty  of  posies,  and  the  posi- 
tive loves  of  flowers,  who  has  not  heard?  Why  this 
untold  riches,  why  this  infinite  diversity  of  form,  why  this 
exhaustless  profusion  of  dyes, — only  for  beauty,  only  for 
thought  and  spirit  ?  So  would  sing  the  poet  the  secret  of 
their  spirit  and  life  which  "the  ages  have  kept." 

"If  I  knew 

Only  the  herbs  and  simples  of  the  wood, — 
Kue,  cinquefoil,  gill,  vervain,  and  agrimony, 
Blue-vetch,  and  trillium,  hawkweed,  sassafras, 
Milkweeds,  and  murky  brakes,  quaint  pipes,  sundew, 
And  rare  and  virtuous  roots,  which  in  these  woods 
Draw  untold  juices  from  the  common  earth, 
Untold,  unknown,  and  I  could  surely  spell 
Their  fragrance,  and  their  chemistry  apply 
By  sweet  affinities  to  human  flesh, 
Driving  the  foe  and  'stablishing  the  friend, — 
Oh,  that  were  much  !  and  I  could  be  a  part 
Of  the  round  day  related  to  the  sun 
And  planted  world,  and  full  executor 
Of  their  imperfect  functions." 

This  "sweet  affinity  to  human  flesh"  is  the  great  fact  of 
their  being,  and  is  quite  a  sufficient  excuse  for  their  existence. 
The  mountain  is  rich  in  its  array  of  flowering  plants,  some 
of  which  are  Alpine  in  their  characters.  In  the  order  of 
their  appearance,  the  first  that  attract  attention  are 
the  vernal  flowers.  These,  as  in  all  high  mountain  lo- 
calities, rush  rapidly  into  life  the  moment  the  frost  has 
liberated  the  surface  from  its  power.  They  spring  from 
the  soil  in  a  multitude  of  graceful  forms.  Some  of  them 
are  peculiar,  and  belong  exclusively  to  mountains,  seem- 


FLORA   OF   THE    MOUNTAIN.  247 

ing  to  find  tlieir  proper  life -medium  in  the  cool  fresh 
air  of  elevated  districts,  and  withering  when  removed  from 
those  regions.  The  vernal  flowers  are  numerous  in  this 
range  of  heights,  and  to  be  known  and  enjoyed  in  all  their 
sweetness,  must  be  seen  and  studied  in  their  native  haunts. 
The  snows  have  scarcely  disappeared  before  the  first  plants 
put  forth  their  leaves  and  delicate  petals  upon  the  cold,  raw 
air,  and  are  especially  prized  and  hailed  with  joy  by  the 
botanist  as  the  prophets  of  the  coming  world  of  life.  And 
first  in  rocky  nooks  and  dripping  springs,  creep  out,  as  if 
fearful  that  the  winter  winds  might  return,  the  Saxifrages, 
Draba,  Heuchera,  Hepatica,  and  Caltha,  or  Marsh  Marigold, 
in  quick  succession.  Then  follow  the  Wind  Flowers,  the  Wake 
Robin,  the  Spring  beauty,  or  Claytonia,  Houstonia,  and 
Columbine,  Sanguinaria,  Bellwort,  Corydalis,  and  Erythro- 
niurn  ;  mingled  with  these  are  delicate  violets  of  almost 
every  hue,  and  of  which  numerous  and  petted  family  the 
mountain  has  many  representatives. 

The  little  humble  earth-gem  "  Mitchella,"  soon  dots  the 
green  surface  with  its  minute  snow-white  twin  flowers,  and 
the  lovely  Epigaea,  with  its  graceful  trailing  stem,  and  foliage 
like  painted  parchment  hiding  clusters  of  delicate  flowers  with 
faint  but  delightful  ordor,  is  soon  found  creeping  among  the 
dead  and  fallen  leaves  as  if  to  conceal  its  beauty  and  sweetness, 
and  give  it  all  to  the  earth  upon  whose  bosom  it  clings 
so  closely.  More  showy  plants  soon  flash  out  their  light 
upon  the  air,  as  flaming  Phloxes,  Cardinal  Lobelias,  the 
Epilobium,  or  Great  Willow  Herb,  with  wand  of  showy 
flowers,  the  proud  Lily,  and  fanciful  Orchidea3,  among  which 
are  the  imperial  purple-fringed  Platanthera,  with  eccentric 
and  anomalous  Cypripedium,  or  Lady's  Slipper,  the  bizarre 
form  of  which  remarkable  flower  is  the  perpetual  joke  of 
the  woods,  a  shape  so  odd,  fantastic,  and  unexpected,  that 
one  asks  if  it  were  not  created  in  derision.  The  mountain's 
show  of  summer  and  autumnal  flowers  is  equally  exten- 
sive and  beautiful.  As  the  summer,  or  sun  months,  are  a 
short  season  on  the  mountain,  this  world  of  plants  seem  to 


248  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

hurry  on  to  the  full  publication  of  their  lives,  and  especially 
to  render  glorious  a  short  and  brilliant  career,  with  ex- 
travagant demonstration  of  ornament  and  show. 

The  scythe  of  the  first  frost  finds  a  rich  and  abundant  harvest. 
The  summer  plants  bloom  on  and  mingle  with  the  autumnal 
flowers,  which  seem  smiling  and  unconscious  of  their  coming 
doom.  Of  the  autumnal  flowers  the  Composite,  or  com- 
pound flowers,  are  the  most  numerous.  Rough  and  hardy, 
they  appear  at  the  close  of  the  flower  season,  proud 
and  defiant,  as  if  they  braved  the  hour  of  dissolution.  A 
number  of  this  class,  after  slumbering  in  the  soil  nearly 
through  the  summer,  suddenly  start  and  bloom,  to  be  as 
quickly  nipped  and  destroyed.  These  plants  seem  to  defy 
the  seasons  and  to  have  resolved  that  they  will,  at  all 
hazards,  bloom.  This  immense  order  has  numerous  genera* 
and  species  on  the  Alleghany  as  elsewhere.  Many  of  them 
are  large,  showy  plants,  and  strike  the  most  careless  ob- 
server by  the  brilliancy  of  the  tints  of  their  flowers,  and  janti- 
ness  of  their  style  of  growth.  Some  of  them  are  the  largest 
and  most  conspicuous  of  annual  plants,  and  are  considered 
rough  and  intrusive  weeds,  possessing,  however,  rare  and 
real  beauties,  as  the  Helianthus,  Eupatorium,  Actinomeris, 
Heliopsis,  Yernonia,  Lactuca,  Hieracium,  etc.  Others  of 
the  order  are  more  delicate  and  attractive  in  the  style  of 
their  beauty,  as  the  Asters,  or  star-flowers,  which  present 
a  flashing  array  of  shining  faces,  radiant  as  jewels,  and 
of  every  dimension  and  tint  of  color,  from  white  specks, 
minute  and  sparkling  as  snow-flakes,  to  broad  dark-red  and 
azure  rays,  until  the  far-famed  star-flower  of  the  celestial 
empire  is  rivaled  in  its  perfections. 

Imperial  and  proud,  the  sun-flower  (Helianthus)  flaunts 
his  colors,  as  if  he  were  veritably  "  a  son  of  the  sun,"  and 
would  shine  as  long  as  his  sire.  The  Golden-rod,  (solidago) 
its  delicate  wands  studded  with  flowers,  contributes  to 
the  "mute  music,"  and  makes  gay  the  forest  and  mountain's 

*  See  catalogue  of  genera  at  end  of  chapter  "  Flora." 


FLORA    OF    THE    MOUNTAIN.  249 

sides  in  those  "bright  September  days."  The  Gnaphalium, 
Coreopsis,  and  Rudbeckia,  mingle  their  silver  and  gold 
with  the  pageantry  which  heralds  the  advent  of  autumn 
and  waves  the  first  farewell  to  departing  summer.  Winter 
concludes  the  story  of  the  flower,  and  its  "little  life  is 
rounded  with  a  sleep." 

Need  the  observation  be  made  that  the  full  and  elaborate 
biography  of  the  flowers  of  the  mountain,  with  their  special 
habits,  phases  of  life-manifestation,  and  instincts,  would  be 
a  labor  of  delight  ?  Here,  again,  the  real  lover  of  nature 
will  find  that  she  is  ever  true  and  faithful  to  her  accredited 
devotees.  Coy  and  cruel,  with  a  face  of  adamant  and  steel 
to  selfishness  and  profane  intrusion,  she  is  approachable, 
gentle,  and  pliant,  to  earnestness  and  love.  Thus  it  will  be 
found,  that  the  life  and  habits  of  one  plant,  read  and  studied 
with  devout  and  careful  seeking,  is  a  key  to  the  history  of 
earth  and  air,  and  a  pass-word  to  the  intellectual  throne  of 
the  knowledge  of  the  realms  of  organic  life. 


SERIES  II.— PLANTS  WITHOUT  FLOWERS. 

Leaving  the  first  great  division  of  the  vegetable  king- 
dom, the  series  of  Phsenogamous  Botany,  or  those  having 
definite  and  clearly  marked  organs  for  the  reproduction 
of  specific  forms,  and  descending  in  this  chain  of  organ- 
isms, we  arrive  at  another  order  of  plants  with  marked 
and  distinctive  features,  called  the  Cryptogamous,  or  flower- 
less  plants,  or  those  the  mechanism  of  whose  reproduction 
was  formerly  supposed  to  be  concealed,  or  even  non-extant. 
The  first  division  embraces  the  imperial  forms,  the  great 
trees  of  the  ages,  the  myriads  of  flowers  which  beautify  the 
earth ;  also  the  useful  plants,  the  companions  of  man,  the 
proper  bread  or  human-flesh  grasses,  or  cerealia,  plants  fur- 
nished with  easily  discoverable  generative  systems,  and  all 
propagated  by  definitely  organized  seeds.  The  other  divi- 
sion (Cryptogarnic)  is  a  more  humble  series, — organizations 


250  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

of  simpler  and  more  homogeneous  elements,  revealing  a  less 
intricately  complicated  morphology,  or,  in  other  words,  fewer 
of  the  wonder-workings  of  that  same  strange  cytoblast, 
from  "those  minims  of  the  vegetable  world,"  single-cell 
plants,  to  the  more  complicated  structure  of  tree  ferns,  but 
all  propagated  by  spores,  or  simple  reproductive  cells. 

These  CELLULARES,  or  cellular  plants,  are  an  inte- 
resting department  of  the  vegetable  world.  Here  com- 
mences the  mysterious  circulation  of  "organic  water,"  and 
the  protean  power  of  that  magical  "protoplasm,"  with 
generative  fiat,  starts  the  whirl  of  the  brute  elements  through 
the  harmonious  gyrations  of  Life.  Here  the  formative 
forces  of  vitality  assume  their  simplest  attitudes  of  nutri- 
tion and  reproduction;  and  here  the  "vegetable  vesicle" 
stands  the  witness  of  the  first  erotic  approach  of  the  pon- 
derable and  imponderable.  This  is  also  the  realm  in  which 
the  two  great  kingdoms,  the  vegetable  and  animal,  ap- 
proximate and  touch  circles  in  a  series  of  surprising  analogies, 
in  the  first  simple  mechanisms  of  life,  for  the  cell  is  the  re- 
sult of  the  ultimate  analysis  of  both. 

"  The  starting-point  of  both  is  the  same  ;  for  the  embryo 
of  the  animal  up  to  a  certain  grade  of  its  development,  con- 
sists, like  that  of  a  plant,  of  nothing  else  than  an  aggre- 
gate of  cells.  The  lowest  class  of  animals,  the  micro- 
scopical animalcula,  or  the  invisible  inhabitants  of  stagnant 
water,  appear  to  be  identical  with  the  simple  cellular  plants, 
already  referred  to  (Volvox  globator.")* 

"  Kutzing  does  not  admit  any  essential  distinction  between 
animals  and  vegetables. f  He  maintains  that  the  same  being 
may,  at  various  periods  of  its  development,  assume  one  na- 
ture or  the  other.  The  following  is  his  theory  in  a  few 
words : — Every  organic  being  is  constituted  of  vegetable 
elements  and  animal  elements,  and,  according  as  one  or 
other  prevails,  the  being  becomes  an  animal  or  a  vegetable ; 

*  Go  ad  by. 

f  See  quotation  from  B,obert  Smith,  at  end  of  catalogue. 


FLORA   OF   THE   MOUNTAIN.  251 

in  the  first  stages  of  development  of  superior  beings,  and 
permanently  in  those  of  inferior  rank,  the  two  elements  are 
equally  balanced,  and  this  is  the  case,  in  the  author's  opinion, 
with  the  Diatomese,  which,  on  this  account,  cannot  be  ab- 
solutely referred  either  to  one  series  or  the  other,  but  consti- 
tute the  ring  or  circle  which  unites  together  all  organic 
beings  into  one  kingdom.  Long  controversies  have  sprung 
up  between  the  supporters  and  opponents  of  this  doctrine, 
who,  to  obtain  victory,  mutually  accuse  one  another  of  logi- 
cal errors,  of  sophisms,  and  of  paradoxes."* 

With  the  exception  of  the  tree  Ferns,  (Tropical,)  whose 
trunks  sometimes  attain  to  the  height  of  forty  feet,  the  cryp- 
to gamic  plants  are  lowly  structures,  the  feathers,  hair,  and 
microscopic  down  of  the  skin  of  the  world. 

This  division  of  plants  is  constituted  of  three  classes,  viz. : 
the  ACROGENS,  the  ANOPHYTES,  and  THALLOPHYTES.  The 
first  of  these  classes"  contains  four  orders,  the  Equisetacece, 
Filices,  Lycopodiacees,  and  Hydropterides.  The  second 
two  orders,  the  Musci  and  Hepaticse ;  and  the  third  four 
orders,  the  Lichenes,  Fungi,  Characea3,  and  Algee. 


ACROGENS. 

Of  this  class  the  mountain  has  the  following  representa- 
tives : — 

ORDER  EQUISETACE^J,  (Horse-tail  Family.) 


SPECIES. 


Kquisetum,  (Horse-tail.     Scouring  Rush,)   .         .  .2 

ORDER  FILICES,  (Ferns.) 

Polypodiuui,  (Polypody,)  Tree  Fern  Family,     ...        2 
Allosorus,  (Rock  Brake,)     .         .         .         .         .         .        .1 

Pteris,  (Brake.   Bracken,) 1 

Adlantum,  (Maiden  Hair,) 1 

Cheilanthes,  (Lip  Fern,)    .......        1 

*  Meneghini,  Botanical  and  Physiological  Memoirs,  Ray  Society, 
1853. 


252  THE    MOUNTAIN. 


SPECIES. 

Woodwardia,  (Woodwardia,)        .        .        .         .         .  .1 

Camptosorus,  (Walking  Leaf,)      :,,    .     .         .         .         .  1 

Aspleniura,  (Spleenwort,) 4 

Bicksonia,  (Dickson's  Fern,)      .      "•'f*       ....  1 

Woodsia,  (Woodsia,)    .       ';: "•v'y"" "'  1*'    *  .        .        .  .1 

Aspidium,  (Shield  Fern,  Wood  Fern,)       ....  2 

Onoclea,  (Sensitive  Fern,)    .         .        .        .        .         .  .1 

Osmunda,  (Flowering  Fern,)     ......  2 

Botrychium,  (Moonwort,)     .        »     ^:J«.       .                 .  .1 

The  ferns  are  the  most  showy,  and  generally  attractive  of 
the  cryptogams.  Many  of  them  are  tall  feather-shaped 
plants,  their  broad  spreading  fronds,  the  ornamental  and  im- 
perial plumage  of  the  earth,  producing  the  perpetual  impres- 
sion of  beauty.  Some  of  them  are  humble  and  lowly  plants, 
but  possessed  of  exceeding  delicacy  and  grace.  The  more 
imposing  species  frequently  occupy  extensive  spaces  of  the 
mountain  heath,  forming  brakes,  or  matted  continuities, 
which  cover  the  surface  sometimes  to  the  entire  exclusion 
of  other  small  plants.  These  fern  forests  have  frequently  a 
striking  and  characteristic  expression,  from  the  large  fronds 
all  assuming  one  position,  by  that  instinct  which  turns  the 
leaves  of  plants  to  the  sun.  The  tall  plumes  are  marshaled 
in  order,  and  stand  with  a  gentle  northern  inclination,  their 
spreading  pinnae,  or  leaflets,  looking  to  the  south,  or  facing 
the  sun,  and  held  in  file  by  the  strong  attraction  of  his  rays. 
Some  of  the  species  are  shy  and  retiring  in  their  habits,  and 
are  rarely  seen  ;  others  are  found  almost  as  common  as  grass, 
occupying  large  spaces,  growing  in  the  woods  and  swamps, 
while  others  invest  the  rocks  and  cliffs,  festooning  their  edges 
and  surfaces  with  rare  and  picturesque  fringes  and  wreaths. 
In  most  of  this  family  of  delicate  and  comely  plants,  the  light 
and  spiritual  forms  of  the  vegetable  world,  it  would  seem 
that  beauty,  or  the  transcendent  element  of  taste  was  alone 
consulted ;  while  the  "  homely  utilities"  or  economical  rela- 
tionships, with  a  few  exceptions,  had  been  ignored. 

The  ferns  seem  to  be  attracted  to  mountains,  and,  from 


FLORA   OF    THE    MOUNTAIN.  253 

the  shyness  of  their  habits,  their  lonely,  retired  haunts,  in 
rocky  nook  or  "bosky  dell,"  they  speak  constantly  of  se- 
questered solitudes,  walks  sacred  to  the  wood-gods,  of  the 
isolation  and  self-sufficiency  of  nature,  and  of  the  mountain 
spirit,  wild  and  indomitable  in  all  its  forms. 

The  man  who  has  no  memory  of  fern  islands  mingled  with 
his  boyhood's  dreams,  has  not  yet  drained  all  the  enchanted 
goblets  of  the  universe,  and  may  have  still  the  ecstasy  of  a 
new  experience  in  the  revelation  of  the  delicacy  and  senti- 
ment of  nature  in  her  most  touching  attitudes  of  wildness, 
sweetness,  and  seclusion. 

By  consulting  the  catalogue  of  genera,  it  will  be  seen  that 
most  of  the  prominent  and  interesting  forms  of  the  order 
Filices  are  represented  on  the  Alleghanies. 

ORDER  LYCOPODIACE^E,  (Club-moss  Family.) 

GENERA.  SPECIES. 

Lycopodium,  (Club-moss,) 5 

The  species  of  ground  pines,  or  club-mosses,  are  found 
extensively  distributed  over  the  mountain  in  shaded  woods 
and  moist  places.  They  are  among  the  most  beautiful  and 
striking  of  the  cryptogarnic  plants. 


ANOPHYTES. 

ORDER  Musci,  (Mosses.) 

This  interesting  class  of  cryptogamic  plants  is  extensively 
distributed  over  the  world.  The  greater  number  require  a 
certain  humidity  of  atmosphere,  and  they  are  more  numerous 
in  temperate  latitudes  than  the  tropics.  They  are  lowly  and 
minute,  but  graceful  and  beautiful,  and  are  among  the  first 
plants  which  take  possession  of  rocks  and  sterile  soils, — 
appearing  even  on  volcanic  slags  and  lifeless  earth-crusts. 
Many  of  them  occupy  extensive  swampy  tracts,  (the 
Sphagna,)  and  form,  by  their  accumulations  of  leaves  and 
stems,  large  deposits  of  carbonaceous  mould,  (modern  for- 
mula of  the  coal  seam,)  while  others  climb  the  highest 


254  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

mountains,  and  penetrate  the  coldest  arctic  spaces.  Hardy 
cosmopolites !  they  aro  found  wherever  light  and  moisture 
can  penetrate,  and  ornament  by  their  graceful  foliage  the 
most  forsaken  nooks,  crannies,  and  neglected  places.  In 
summer  their  vivid  velvet-mantles  and  verdant  cushions 
gleam  through  the  forests,  investing  nearly  every  prostrate 
trunk  or  living  tree,  bank,  rock,  and  bed  of  brook.  In  win- 
ter their  fragile  bright-green  leaves  may  be  found  fresh  and 
smiling  beneath  frost  and  ice,  and  their  tiny  fruit-bearing 
stems  carrying  fantastic  caps  on  bursting  spore-cases,  are 
often  seen  penetrating  the  snow  with  a  reproductive  energy 
that  defies  the  most  intense  cold.  This  is  a  floral  chapter 
that  seems  perennial  in  its  fascinations,  and  the  bryologist  is 
especially  happy  as  even  winter  gives  no  interruption  to  his 
attractive  labors.  Mountains  seem  to  be  the  special  home 
of  the  moss  family,  as  the  valleys,  cultivated  lowlands,  and 
prairies,  do  not  appear  to  attract  this  little  race  of  rock  and 
desert-taming  pioneers  of  the  vegetable  kingdom.  The 
Pennsylvania  Alleghany  range  is  a  rich  and  varied  moss 
district,  and  has  been  examined,  to  a  certain  extent,  by  a 
number  of  crypto gamic  botanists.*  It  seems  to  possess  the 
condition  of  elements  most  favorable  as  a  habitat  of  this 
class  of  plants.  In  its  cool  air,  its  widely  extended  forests 
with  interminable  shades,  and  quantities  of  fallen  and  decay- 
ing timber,  its  extents  of  surface  covered  with  fragments  of 
rock,  its  moist  ravines  and  gorges  with  projecting  cliffs, 
its  sequestered  dells  and  shady  precipices,  its  swampy  places 
and  fresh  running-streams, — we  are  presented  with  a  medium 
of  special  adaptation  to  the  life-affinities  of  the  Bryacea?. 
Embracing  several  geological  formations  with  diversity  of 
mineral  composition,  which  gives  origin  to  a  variety  of  soils 
from  disintegration,  and  to  the  exposure  for  moss-growing 

*  Of  the  number  who  have  visited  the  mountain  for  moss-gather- 
ing purposes,  are  the  accomplished  bryologists  Leo  Lesquereux  and 
Thomas  P.  James,  two  indefatigable  workers  in  this  department  of 
science,  to  whom  the  American  student  of  botany  owes  much,  and, 
it  is  to  be  hoped  will  owe  more,  before  their  labors  are  ended. 


FLORA   OF   THE    MOUNTAIN.  255 

surfaces  of  different  kinds  of  rock,  at  the  same  time  stretch- 
ing up  through  a  considerable  calorical  scale,  or  height  of 
climatal  variations,  it  would  be  natural  to  expect  that  the 
mountain  would  reveal  extensive  botanical  affinities  in  this 
and  other  departments.  Here,  to  the  common  observer, 
the  variety  would  appear  to  be  infinite,  but  the  drilled  eye 
of  the  naturalist  soon  classifies  and  catalogues  them  all. 

Of  the  ORDER  Musci,  William  S.  Sullivant  and  his  co- 
laborers  in  this  department,  have  reported  three  hundred 
and  ninety-four  indigenous  species,  of  which  two  hundred 
and  fifty-five  are  common  to  Europe. 

No  introduced  European  species  are  recorded.  Some 
cursory  observations  of  the  mosses  of  the  Alleghany  give 
the  following  list  of  genera  : — 

Sphagnum,  (Peat-moss.)  Pogonatum,  (Haircup-moss.) 

Phascum,  (Earth-moss.)  Polytrichum. 

Gymnostomum.  Encalypta,  (Extinguisher-moss.) 

Aphanorhegma.  Orthotrichum,  (Bristle-moss.) 
Physcomitrium,  (Bladder-moss.)  Diphyscium. 

Hedwigia,  (Beardless-moss  )  Bartramia,  (Apple-moss.) 

Tetraphis,  (Fourtooth-moss.)  Aulacomnion,  (Furrowcap-moss) 

Grimmia.  Mnium,  (Thymethread-moss.) 

Schistidium.  Bryum,  (Thread-moss.) 

Kacomitrium,  (Shredeap-moss.)  Fimaria,  (Cord-moss.) 

Fissidens,  (Splittooth-moss.)  Leskea. 

Dicranum,  (Fork-moss.)  Thelia. 

Leucobryum,  (Pallid-moss.)  Neckera. 

Ceratodon.  Cylmdrothecium,  (Cylinder-moss) 

Campylopus,  (Swanneck-moss.)  Leucodon,  (Whitetootli-moss.) 

Weisia.  Leptodon,  (Wing-moss.) 

Rkabdoweisia,  (Streak-moss,)  Anomodon 

Drummondia.  Climacium,  (Tree-moss.) 

Tetraplodon,  (Collar-moss.)  Homalothecium. 

Trichostomum,  (Fringe-moss.)  Hypnum,  (Feather-moss.) 

Barbula,  (Beard-moss.)  Fontinalis,  (Fountain  Moss.) 

Atrichum,  (Smoothcap-moss.)  Zygodon,  (Yoke-moss.) 

Dicranodontiurn,   (Swanneck-  Dichelyma. 

moss.)  Pylaisa3a. 

Trematodon.  Platygyrium. 


256  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

This  imperfectly  elaborated  catalogue  of  genera  embraces 
more  than  half  of  the  described  North  American  mosses. 
It  will  be  increased,  no  doubt,  largely  by  future  and  more 
critical  explorations,  as  many  of  them  are  exceedingly  mi- 
nute plants,  with  shy  habits,  and  requiring  great  patience 
and  vigilance  to  discover  them.  These  genera  contain  a 
number  of  species,  many  of  which  are  found  on  the  moun- 
tain, thus  giving  an  extensive  list  of  mosses  for  that  lo- 
cality. A  number  of  them  are  of  great  beauty,  and 
widely  distributed.  Sometimes  they  show  matted  masses 
resembling  forests  of  miniature  pines ;  again,  microscopic 
cane-brakes,  or  laurel  thickets,  investing  with  their  delicate 
tree-shaped  stems  the  rocks  and  ground.  Considerable 
spaces  of  the  surface  are  grown  over  by  some  of  the  spe- 
cies, as  the  earth  is  covered  by  grass.  Others,  again,  are 
found  on  trees,  covering  their  trunks  and  branches,  while 
there  are  those  that  inhabit  fountains  and  brooks,  and 
occupy  the  surfaces  of  rocks  and  fallen  timber,  envelop- 
ing whole  prostrate  trunks  with  mantles  of  variously  tinted 
plush,  or  robes  of  delicate  light-green  feathers.  Thus,  as 
objects  of  grace  and  beauty,  they  constitute  an  interest- 
ing field  of  investigation,  dressing  the  myriad  shapes  of  the 
woods  with  elaborate  and  fanciful  decorations.  Being  very 
retentive  of  life,  and  hardy,  they  resist  extremely  low  tem- 
peratures, many  of  them  fructifying,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the 
snow,  and  exhibiting  their  bright  foliage  when  other  plants 
are  sleeping  or  dead.  The  moss  thus  appears  a  silent  wit- 
ness, in  the  slumber  of  winter,  that  life  has  not  been  extin- 
guished in  the  whole  world  of  vegetation,  or  animation  even 
suspended  in  all,  but  that  in  some  forms  it  is  imperishable, 
blooming  with  the  freshness  of  evergreen  youth  through  all 
times  and  seasons. 

Another  point  of  interest  in  this  class,  as  of  other  crypto- 
gamic  plants,  is  their  world-wide  or  cosmopolitan  range. 
Thus  we  have  seen  that  of  394  described  species  of  indi- 
genous moss,  255  are  common  to  Europe,  while  of  the  whole 
number  of  species,  including  Phsenogamous  plants,  enume- 
rated by  Gray,  2C68,  only  676  are  common  to  Europe. 


FLORA   OF   THE   MOUNTAIN.  257 


ORDER  HEPATIC^,  (Liverworts.) 

This  order  of  cryptogamic  plants  has  many  repre- 
sentatives on  the  Alleghany  Mountain.  They  are  small 
cellular  plants,  some  of  them  resembling  mosses,  and  pre- 
senting many  points  of  similarity,  in  form  and  habits,  with 
that  order.  They  are  diversified  in  their  forms  of  vegeta- 
tion and  reproduction,  the  quaint  and  peculiar  style  of  which 
is  striking,  even  to  the  ordinary  observer,  and  possesses 
marked  attractions  for  the  botanist.  In  Gray's  Manual, 
"William  S.  Sullivant  has  reported  38  genera,  and  108  spe- 
cies. For  the  clever  monograph,  with  beautifully  elaborated 
figures  of  the  genera  of  this  order,  by  this  distinguished 
cryptogamist,  the  student  of  American  botany  must  feel 
under  perpetual  obligation.  A  heretofore  comparatively 
closed  book  is  now, unsealed,  and  the  student  can  walk  with 
open  eyes  into  a  new  and  enchanting  region.  The  Alle- 
ghany, as  already  remarked,  is  a  rich  Hepatic  field,  and  will 
give  an  abundant  harvest  to  the  laborer  in  this  department. 


THALLOPHYTES. 

ORDER  LICHENES,  (Lichens.) 

The  class  of  organic  forms  called  THALLOPHYTES,  are  the 
simplest  vegetable  structures.  They  have  no  distinction  into 
stems,  roots,  or  leaves,  as  the  higher  cryptogamic  plants  ex- 
hibit, but  are  composed  of  a  mass  of  cells  accumulated  in  a 
parenchymous  plane,  called  a  Thallus  or  Frond.  The  order 
Lichenes  is  in  this  group.  They  are  peculiar,  both  as  to 
their  nutrition  and  reproduction,  and  show  a  strong  bearing 
toward  that  troublesome  region  of  speculation  in  which  com- 
mence the  great  questions  of  UNIVOCAL  and  EQUIVOCAL  gene- 
ration. On  SPONTANEOUS  generation,  or  "matter  assuming 
organization  under  the  influence  of  water  and  light,"  the 
following  observations  of  Lindley  may  seem  to  savor  of  an 
unorthodox  philosophy  to  many  who  are  given  to  intellectual 

22* 


258  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

stampedings  on  the  announcement  of  the  great  generaliza- 
tions of  science  : — * 

"  On  this  subject  the  investigations  of  Meyer  are  exceed- 
ingly interesting.  By  sowing  Lichens  he  arrived  at  some 
curious  conclusions,  the  chief  of  which  are  that,  like  other 
imperfect  plants,  they  may  owe  their  origin  either  to  an 
elementary  or  a  reproductive  generating  power, — the  latter 
capable  of  development  like  the  plant  by  which  they  are 
borne :  that  decomposed  vegetable  and  some  inorganic 
matter,  are  equally  capable  of  assuming  organization  under 
the  influence  of  water  and  light ;  and  that  the  pulverulent 
matter  of  Lichens  is  that  which  is  subject  to  this  kind  of 
indefinite  propagation,  while  the  spores  lying  in  the  shields 
are  the  only  part  that  will  really  multiply  the  species.  He 
further  says,  that  he  has  ascertained,  by  means  of  experi- 
ments from  seed,  that  supposed  species,  and  even  some  genera 
of  Acharius,  are  all  forms  of  the  same ;  as,  for  instance, 
Lecanora  cerina,  Lecidea  luteo-alba,  and  others,  of  the  com- 
mon Parmelia  parietina."f 

Of  the  character,  habits  of  distribution,  general  nature  of 
the  Lichens,  Lindley  proceeds  to  observe  : — "  Pulverulent 
Lichens  are  the  first  plants  that  clothe  the  bare  rocks  of 
newly-formed  islands  in  the  midst  of  the  ocean ;  foliaceous 
Lichens  follow  these,  and  then  Mosses  and  Liverworts. 
(D'Urville,  Ann.  Sc.  6,  54.)  They  are  found  upon  trees, 
rocks,  stones,  bricks,  pales,  and  similar  places  ;  and  the  same 
species  seem  to  be  found  in  many  different  parts  of  the 
world  :  thus  the  Lichens  of  North  America  differ  little  from 
those  of  Europe.  They  are  not  met  with  on  decaying  mat- 

*  The  mountain  being  a  page  of  the  venerable  tome,  perhaps  a 
whole  leaf  of  "that  elder  Scripture  writ  by  God's  own  hand,  Na- 
ture," would  not  desire  to  appear,  except  as  witness  or  attorney  for 
plaintiff  in  issues  against  those  profane  burglars,  pick-locks,  and 
spies,  in  the  private  workshop  of  the  Almighty,  called  men  of  science, 
(wicked  rogues  of  nescience!  /)  and  the  municipal  corps,  or  regularly 
organized  simon-pure  orthodox  police  of  Heaven. 

f  Vegetable  Kingdom,  John  Lindley,  Lichenales. 


FLORA   OF   THE   MOUNTAIN.  259 

ter  where  they  give  way  to  fungi ;  but  they  often  occupy 
the  surface  of  living  plants,  especially  their  bark.  In  the 
tropics  they  lay  hold  of  evergreen  leaves.  •  Their  chosen 
climate  is  one  that  is  temperate  and  moist ;  aspects  to  the 
north  or  west  are  also  their  favorite  resort,  for  they  shun 
the  rays  of  the  noon-day  sun.  No  place  seems  to  be  a  more 
constant  haunt  than  the  surface  of  sandstone  rocks,  and 
buildings  in  cool  and  moist  countries.  They  are  met  with,  in 
one  place  or  other,  from  the  equator  to  the  pole,  and  from  the 
sea-shore  to  the  limits  of  eternal  snow.  The  finest  species 
are  found  near  the  equator;  the  most  imperfect,  such  as  the 
crustaceous  genera,  which  can  hardly  be  distinguished  from 
the  rocks  they  grow  upon,  are  chiefly  observed  on  mountain- 
tops,  and  near  the  pole.  The  Idiothalami  are  most  abund- 
ant in  tropical  America." 

The  Lichen  appears,  then,  the  pioneer  of  that  splendid 
world  of  forms  which  seems,  from  its  entire  dissimilarity  of 
structure,  to  ignore  its  affinity  or  alliance  by  any  conceivable 
nexus  with  it,  and  as  the  first  blundering  effort  of  inorganic 
matter  to  enter  the  higher  sphere  of  life.  The  mountain's 
rocks  and  forests  present  an  extensive  field  of  research  in 
this  department  of  botany,  from  the  same  causes  which  give 
exuberance  of  growth  to  the  other  orders  of  cryptogamic 
plants.  From  the  lower  varieties  of  pulverulent  and  crus- 
taceous lichens  covering  stones,  fences,  and  walls,  with  white, 
gray,  or  yellow  scurf,  to  the  more  complex  structures  of 
fronds,  they  are  found  picturing  the  surfaces  of  all  fixed  ob- 
jects with  every  conceivable  shape  of  spots  and  markings, 
clinging  to  the  bark  of  trees,  investing  their  branches  with 
fantastic  scales  and  gelatinous  skins,  or  floating  festoons  of 
hair  ;  destitute  of  roots,  but  eroding  at  last  the  hardest 
vitreous  slags.  Drawing  their  nourishment  from  the  air, 
they  adhere  to  the  naked  surfaces  of  everything,  clothing  the 
rock  and  tree  with  an  endless  variety  of  dress  and  orna- 
ment. 

In  the  class  of  uses,  the  order  abounds  in  valuable  ele- 
ments, nutritive,  medicinal,  and  chemical  coloring-principles. 


260  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

Something  of  the  extent  of  the  alliance  as  distributed  over 
the  earth,  and  enumerated  by  Lindley,  may  be  inferred  from 
the  fact  that  the  species,  long  since  described,  amounted  to 
2500. 

The  ORDER  FUNGI,  of  the  class  Thallophytes,  is  one  of 
the  most  curious  and  interesting  of  the  whole  vegetable 
series.  Viewed  with  reference  to  their  complex  structure, 
their  strange  and  eccentric  habits ;  their  peculiar  economic 
function  in  the  organic  world ;  their  chemical  composition 
and  special  relations, — they  constitute  a  wonderful  order  of 
plants. 

"A  full  account  of  the  diversified  modifications  of  struc- 
ture that  Fungi  display,  and  of  the  remarkable  points  of 
their  economy,  would  require  a  volume.  "*  Something  of  this 
vastness  of  range  in  numbers  and  affinities  may  be  imagined 
from  the  general  enumeration  of  the  "Vegetable  King- 
dom,"f  (Alliance  11  Fungales,)  amounting  to  598  genera 
and  4000  species.  The  forests  of  the  Alleghany  Mountain, 
with  their  extensive  variety  of  decomposing  vegetable  mat- 
ter, give  a  large  catalogue  of  mushrooms. 

The  last,  but  not  least  wonderful  of  the  THALLOGENS,  is 
the  ORDER  ALG^S.  It  is  a  vast  family,  swarming  in  myriads 
through  seas,  rivers,  brooks,  and  pools,  and  growing  some- 
times on  wet  and  humid  earth.  The  Algals  are  of  all  dimen- 
sions, forms,  and  colors,  from  microscopic  points  floating  in 
water  as  motes  swim  in  the  sunbeam,  to  trailing,  leathery 
masses,  hundreds  of  feet  in  length,  and  from  transparent 
mucus  scums,  to  brilliantly  tinted  sheets  dyed  with  all  the 
colors  of  the  rainbow.  This  order  and  its  subdivisions  also 
occupy  a  singular  and  questionable  position  in  the  scale 
of  organisms.  Of  this  ambiguity  Lindley  observes  : — "  It 
is  here  that  the  transition  from  animals  to  plants,  whatever 
its  true  nature  may  be,  occurs ;  for  it  is  incontestable,  as 
the  varying  statements  of  original  observers  testify,  that  no 
man  can  certainly  say  whether  many  of  the  organic  bodies 

*  Asa  Gray.  f  John  Lindley. 


FLORA    OF   THE   MOUNTAIN.  261 

placed  here  belong  to  the  one  kingdom  of  nature  or  the 
other.  Whatever  errors  of  observation  may  have  occurred, 
these  very  errors,  to  say  nothing  of  the  true  ones,  show  the 
extreme  difficulty,  not  to  say  the  impossibility,  of  pointing 
out  the  exact  frontier  of  either  kingdom."*  Whereupon 
the  Rev.  M.  J.  Berkeley,  startled  "by  these  astounding 
statements,"  remarks  : — "  The  same  species  may  assume  a 
vast  variety  of  forms  according  to  varying  circumstances, 
and  it  is  highly  instructive  to  observe  these  changes ;  but 
that  the  same  spore  should,  under  different  circumstances, 
be  capable  of  producing  beings  of  almost  entirely  different 
nature,  each  capable  of  producing  its  species,  is  a  matter 
which  ought  not  to  be  admitted  generally  without  the 
strictest  proof."  In  the  Zoogeny  of  Oken  it  is  written, 
(paragraph  1715,)  "  Every  organic  originates  from  a  mucus- 
point.  If  this  mucus-point  occur  in  the  darkness,  it  thus 
becomes  a  terrestrial  organism,  a  plant ;  if  it  enter  into  the 
light,  which  is  only  possible  in  the  water  and  in  air,  it  thus 
becomes  a  solar  organism,  independent  of  the  planet,  self- 
moving  around  itself  like  the  sun,  an  animal."  "The  ani- 
mal is  a  whole  solar-system,  the  plant  only  a  planet.  The 
animal  is,  therefore,  a  whole  universe,  the  plant  only  its 
half;  the  former  is  microcosm,  the  latter  micro-planet." 
(Idem,  paragraph  1180.)  So  sparkle  the  philosophers  on 
the  origin  of  things,  particularly  of  plants  and  animals,  and 
all  this  from  the  contemplation  of  the  wonderful  life-mani- 
festations of  the  Algals.  The  streams,  pools,  springs,  and 
moist  spots  of  the  mountain,  abound  in  numerous  fresh- 
water genera  and  species  of  this  widely-distributed  order 
of  plants. 

Thus  endeth  the  story  of  the  plant.  In  stately  and  ma- 
jestic repose  the  mountain  folds  about  itself  this  many- 
tissued,  many-tinted  garment  of  living  fibres,  each  microscopic 
alga,  each  imperial  tree,  quickened  by  that  worker  of  per- 
petual miracles,  life.  For  what  ends  exist  this  immea- 

*  See  observations  of  Menegliini  and  Goadby,  p.  250. 


262  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

surable  array  of  attractive  objects  ?  First  as  a  vast  ex- 
panse of  living,  normal,  and  beautiful  forms,  it  shall  address 
the  senses  of  the  physical  man,  and  by  healing  sympathies  and 
recuperative  vitalizing  forces,  invite  him  to  a  larger,  more 
genial,  and  healthful  world  of  sensuous  emotion.  Secondly, 
it  shall,  by  a  purer,  more  subtle,  ethereal  and  Divine  force, 
penetrate  the  depths  of  his  spiritual  nature,  and  by  sentiment 
and  thought,  intelligence  and  love,  magnify  and  ennoble  his 
soul. 

The  forest,  the  heath,  the  flower,  the  fern,  the  moss,  the 
lichen,  form  thus  for  man  a  recipe  of  health,  a  concert  of 
harmony,  a  lesson  of  wisdom,  a  transport  of  beauty. 


CATALOGUE  OF 

FLOWERING    PLANTS. 


A  FULL  or  descriptive  catalogue  of  all  the  species  of  flowering 
plants  would  occupy  more  space  than  can  be  allotted  to  this  de- 
partment of  the  natural  history  of  the  mountain.  An  enumeration 
of  the  most  prominent  genera,  or  common  families,  with  a  number 
of  the  most  prominent  species,  will  indicate  something  of  the  pre- 
dominating influences  grouped  under  the  name  of  habitat  of  the 
region,  as  shown  by  the  plant.  With  the  plants  already  named  in 
the  text,  we  are  presented  with  the  following : — * 

SERIES  I.— FLOWERING  OR  PHJENOGAMOUS 
PLANTS. 

CLASS  L— EXOGENOUS  OR  DICOTYLEDONOUS  PLANTS. 

SUB-CLASS  I. — ANGIOSPERIOS. 

1.  ORDER  RANTJNCULACEJE,  (Crow-foot  Family.) 

GENERA.  SPECIES. 

Atriigene,  (Atragene) 1 

Clematis,  (Virgin's-Bower) 1 

Anemdne,  ( Wind-Flo wer) 3 

Hepatica,  (Liver-Leaf) 2 

Thalictrum,  (Meadow-Rue) 2 

Ranunculus,  (Crow-foot  Buttercup) 4 

Caltha,  (Marsh  Marigold) 1 

Aquilegia,  (Columbine) 1 

Zanthoriza,  (Yellow-root) 1 

*  This  enumeration  is  the  order  pursued  by  Professor  A.  Gray  in  his  admirable 
and  invaluable  "Manual  of  Botany."  Nearly  all  the  plants  of  this  catalogue  are  com- 
mon in  the  interior,  middle,  and  western  part  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  as  well 
as  on  the  Alleghany  range  of  mountains. 

(263) 


264  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

GENERA.  SPECIES. 

Actsea,  (Baneberry,  Cohosh) 1 

Cimicifuga,  (Bugbane)  2 

2.  ORDER  MAGNOLIACEJE,  (Magnolia  Family.) 
(Already  enumerated.) 

4.  ORDER  MENISPERMACEJE,  (Moonseed  Family.) 

Menispe'rminn,  (Moonseed) 1 

5.  ORDER  BERBERIDACE.E,  (Barberry  Family.) 

Caulophyllum,  (Blue  Cohosh) 1 

Podophyjlum,  (May-apple,  Mandrake) 1 

8    ORDER  NYMPH^EACE^;. 

Nuphar 1 

10.  ORDER  PAPAVERXCEJE,  (Poppy  Family.) 

Papaver,  (Poppy,)  from  Europe 1 

Chelidonium,  (Celandine,)  from  Europe 1 

Sanguinaria,  (Blood-root) 1 

11.  ORDER  FUMARIACECE,  (Fumitory  Family.) 

Adlumia,  (Climbing  Fumitory) 1 

Dicentra,  (Dutchman's  Breeches) 3 

Corydalis,  (Corydalis) 1 

12.  ORDER  CRUCIFER.E,  (Mustard  Family.) 

Nasturtium,  (Watercress) 3 

Dentaria,  (Pepper-root,  Toothwort) 2 

Cardamine,  (Bitter-cress) 2 

Arabis,  (Rock-cress) 3 

Barbarea,  (Winter-cress)  1 

Erysimum,  (Treacle-mustard) 1 

Sisymbrium,  (Hedge-mustard) 1 

Sinapis,  (Mustard) 2 

Draba,  (Whitlow-grass) 2 

Lepidium,  (Pepper-grass) 1 

Caps611a,  (Shepherd's  Purse) 1 

Raphanus,  (Radish) 1 

15.  ORDER  VIOLACE^E,  (Violet  Family.) 

Solea,  (Green  Violet) 1 

Viola,  (Violet  Heartsease) 10 

1C.  ORDER  CISTACE^E,  (Rock  Rose  Family.) 

Lechea,  (Pinweed) 1 


FLORA   OF   THE   MOUNTAIN.  265 

19.  ORDER  HYPERICACE.E,  (St.  John's-wort  Family.) 

GENERA.  SPECIES. 

Hype'ricum,  (St.  John's-wort) 4 

Elodea 1 

21.  ORDER  CARYOPHTLLACE^E,  (Pink  Family.) 

Dianthus,  (Pink)  introduced 

Saponaria,  (Soapwort)  from  Europe 1 

Silene,  (Catchfly  Campion) .' 3 

Agrostemma,  (Corn-cockle)  from  Europe 1 

Stellaria,  Chickweed,  Starwort) 1 

Cerastium,  (Mouse-ear  Chickweed) 2 

Spergula,  (Spurrey)  from  Europe 1 

22.  ORDER  PORTULACACEJE,  (Purslane  Family.) 

Portulaca,  (Purslane)  from  Europe 1 

Claytonia,  (Spring-Beauty) 2 

23.  ORDER  MALVACE^:,  (Mallow  Family.) 

Althsea,  introduced  from  Europe 

Malva,  (Mallow)  from  Europe 2 

24.  ORDER  TILIACEJS,  (Linden  Family.) 
(Enumerated.) 

27.  ORDER  OXALIDXCEJE,  (Wood-sorrel  Family.) 
Oxalis,  (Wood-sorrel) 3 

28.  ORDER  GERANIACE^:,  (Geranium  Family.) 
Geranium,  (Crane's  Bill) 1 

29.  ORDER  BALSAMINACE^;,  (Balsam  Family.) 
Impatiens,  (Jewel-weed) 2 

32.  ORDER  ANACARDIACEJE,  (Cashew  Family.) 
Rhus,  (enumerated) 


33.  ORDER  VITACE.E,  (Vine  Family.) 

Vitis,  (enumerated) 

Ampelopsis,  (enumerated) 


34.  ORDER  RHAMNACE.E,  (Buckthorn  Family.) 
Ceanbthus,  (enumerated) 


35.  ORER  CELASTRACE^E,  (Staff-tree  Family.) 

Celastrus,  (enumerated) 

Euonymus,         "  , 

23 


266  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

36.  ORDER  SAPIND\CE^;,  (Soapberry  Family.) 

GENERA.  SPECIE 

Acer,  (enumerated) 

37.  ORDER  POLYGALACEJE,  (Milk-wort  Family.) 
Polygala,  (Milkwort) 4 

38.  ORDER  LEGUMINOSJE,  (Pulse  Family.) 

Lupinus,  (Lupine) 1 

Trif  olium,  (Clover)  ....'. 3 

Robinia,  (enumerated) 

Tephrosia,  (Hoary  Pea) 1 

Hedysarum,  (Hedysarum) 1 

Desmodium,  (Tick  Trefoil) 

Lespedeza,  (Bush-Clover) 

Stylosanthes,  (Pencil-Flower) 

Vicia,  (Vetch) 

Lathyrus,  (Vetchling) 

Phaseolus,  Kidney  Bean) 

Apios,  (Ground-nut) 1 

Baptisia,  (False  Indigo) 1 

Cercis,  (enumerated) 

Cassia,  (Senna) 1 

39.  ORDER  ROSACEJE,  (Rose  Family.)* 

Prunus,  (enumerated) 

Cerasus,  (enumerated) 

Spiraea,  (Meadow-Sweet) 3 

Gillenia,  (Indian  Physic) 2 

Agrimbnia,  (Agrimony) 1 

Geum,  (Avens) 

Potentilla,  (Cinque-foil) 3 

Fragaria,  (Strawberry) 1 

Dalibarda,          "  1 

Rubus,  (enumerated) 

Rosa,  "  

Crataegus,       "  

Pyrus,  (Pear  Apple) 1 

Amelanchier,  (enumerated) 

42.  ORDER  LYTHRACEJE,  (Loosestrife  Family.) 
Cuphea,  (Cuphea) 1 

43.  ORDER  ONAGRACE.E,  (Evening  Primrose  Family.) 
Epilobium 2 

*  See  end  of  catalogue. 


FLORA   OF   THE   MOUNTAIN.  267 


(Enothera,  (Evening  Primrose) 3 

Gaura,  (Gaura) 1 

Ludwigia,  (False  Loosestrife) 

Circsea,  (Enchanter's  Nightshade) 2 

46.  ORDER  GROSSTJLACE.E,  (Currant  Family.) 
Ribes,  (Gooseberry) 4 

48.  ORDER  CUCTJRBITACE.S:,  (Gourd  Family.) 

All  the  cultivated  members  of  this  family  flourish  here, 
except  a  few  of  the  delicate  melons,  which  never  ripen, 
although  they  grow  well. 

49.  ORDER  GRASSULACEJE,  (Orpine  Family.) 

Sedum,  (Stone  Crop) 

Penthorum,  (Ditch  Stone-Crop) 


50.  ORDER  SAXIFRAGE  JE,  (Saxifrage  Family.) 

Saxifraga,  (Saxifrage) 

Heuchera,  (Alum-root)". 2 

Mitella,  (Bishop's  Cap) 1 

Tiarella,  (False  Mitre-wort) 1 

Hydrangea,  (Hydrangea)  enumerated 1 

61.  ORDER  HAMAMELACEJE,  (Witch-Hazel  Family.) 
Hamamelis,  (Witch-Hazel,)  enumerated 


52.  ORDER  UMBELLIFERJE,  (Parsley  Family.) 

Hydrocotyle,  (Marsh  Pennywort) 

Sanicula,  (Sanicle) 

Daucus,  (from  Europe) 

Angelica,  (Angelica)  

Zizia 

Cicuta 

The  cultivated  species  of  this  order  grow  well  on  the 
mountain,  as  the  parsley,  celery,  dill,  fennel,  and  cori- 
ander. 

53.  ORDER  ARALIACE.E,  (Ginseng  Family.) 
Aralia 6 

53.  ORDER  CORNACE^,  (Dogwood  Family.) 

Cornus,  (enumerated) 

Nyssa,  *<  


268  THE    MOUNTAIN. 


DIVISION  II.— MONOPETALOUS  EXOGENS. 

55.  ORDER  CAPRIFOLIACE^E,  (Honeysuckle  Family.) 

GENERA.  SPECIES. 

Lonicera,  (Woodbine) 

Triosteum,  (Horse-gentian.) 1 

Sambucus,  (Elder,)  enumerated 2 

Viburnum,  (Arrow-wood) 4 

56.  ORDER  RUBIACE.E,  (Madder  Family. ) 

Galium,  (Bed  Straw) 5 

Cephal&nthus,  (Button-bush) 1 

MitchSlla,  (Partridge-berry) 1 

Oldenlandia,  (Bluets) 2 

58.  ORDER  DIPSACEJE,  (Teasel  Family.) 

Dipsacus,  (introduced) 1 

59.  ORDER  COMPOSITE,  (Composite  Family.) 

Vernonia,  (Ironweed) 1 

Liatris,  (Blazing  Star) 2 

Eupatorium,  (Thoroughwort) 5 

Aster,  (Starwort) 12 

Erigeron,  (Fleabane) 4 

Solidago,  (Golden-rod) 13 

Inula,  (Elecampane)  introduced 1 

Ambrosia,  (Ragweed) 2 

Xanthium,  (Clotbur) 1 

Heliopsis,  (Ox-eye) 1 

Rudbeckia,  (Cone-flower) 3 

Helianthus,  (Sunflower) 7 

Actinomeris,  (Actinomeris) 1 

Coreopsis,  (Trickseed) 1 

Bidens,  (Bur-marigold) 4 

Helenium,  (False  Sunflower) 1 

Maruta,  (Mayweed,)  introduced 1 

Achillea,  (Yarrow) 1 

Leucanthemum,  (Ox-eye  Daisy) 1 

Tanacetum,  (Tansy,)  introduced 1 

Gnaplialium,  (Cudweed)  3 

Antennaria,  (Everlasting) 1 

Erechthites,  (Fireweed) 1 

Cacalia,  (Indian  Plantain) 1 


FLORA.   OP   THE   MOUNTAIN.  269 

GENERA.  SPECIES 

Senecio,  (Groundsel) 1 

Centaurea,  (Star-thistle)  from  Europe 2 

Cirsium,  (Common  Thistle) 3 

Lappa,  (Burdock,)  from  Europe 1 

Krigia,  (Dwarf  Dandelion) 1 

Hieracium,  (Hawkweed) 4 

Nabalus,  (Rattlesnake-root) 2 

Taraxacum,  (Common  Dandelion,)  from  Europe) 1 

Lactuca,  (Lettuce) 1 

60.  ORDER  LOBELIACE.ZE,  (Lobelia  Family.) 
Lobelia,  (Lobelia) 4 

61.  ORDER  CAMPANULACEJE,  (Campanula  Family.) 
Campanula,  (Bell-flower) 2 

62.  ORDER  ERICACE^;,  (Heath  Family.) 

Gaylussacia,  (enumerated) 

Vaccinium,  "  

Epigaea,  (Trailing  Arbutus)  1 

Gaultheria,  (Wintergreen,  or  Mountain  Tea) 1 

Andromeda,  (enumerated) 

Kalmia,  (American  Laurel,)  enumerated 

Menziesia 1 

Azalea,  (enumerated) 

Rhododendron,  (Rose  Bay)  enumerated 

Pyrola,  (False  Wintergreen) 3 

Chimaphila,  (Pipsissewa) 2 

Monotropa,  (Indian  Pipe) 2 

64.  ORDER  AQUIFOLIACE.E,  (Holly  Family.) 
Prinos,  (Black-alder) 2 

68.  ORDER  PLANTAGINACEJS,  (Plantain  Family.) 
Plantago,  (Ribgrass) 3 

70.  ORDER  PRIMULACE^E,  (Primrose  Family.) 
Lysimachia,  (Loosestrife) 3 

71.  ORDER  LENTIBULACE^E,  (Bladderwort  Family.) 
Utricularia 

73.  ORDER  OROBANCHACE^;,  (Broom-rape  Family.) 

Epiphegus,  (Cancer-root) 1 

Conopholis,  (Squaw-root) 1 

Aphyllon 

23* 


270  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

74.  ORDER  SCROPHULARIACE.E,  (Fig-wort  Family.) 

GENERA.  SPECIES. 

Varbascum,  (Mullein) 2 

Linaria,  (Toad-flax) 

Scrophularia,  (Fig-wort) 

Chelone,  (Snake-head) 

Pentstemon,  (Beard-tongue) 

Mimulus,  (Monkey-flower) 

Gratiola,  (Hedge-hyssop) 1 

Veronica,  (Speedwell) 5 

Gerardia,  (Gerardia) 3 

Castilleia,  (Painted-cup) 1 

Pedicularis,  (Louse-wort) 1 

Melampyrum,  (Cow-wheat) 1 

76.  ORDER  VERBENACEJE,  (Vervain  Family.) 

Verbena,  (Vervain) 2 

Phryma,  (Lopseed) 1 

77.  ORDER  LABIATE,  (Mint.  Family.) 

Teucrium,  (Wood-sage) 1 

Isanthus,  (False  Pennyroyal) 1 

Mentha,  (Mint) 2 

Lycopus,  (Water  Horehound) 1 

Pycnanthemum,  (Mountain  Mint) 3 

Thymus,  (Thyme,)  from  Europe 

Hedeoma,  (Mock  Pennyroyal) 1 

Collinsonia,  (Horse-balm) 1 

Monarda,  (Horse-mint) 3 

Nepeta,  (Cat-mint,)  from  Europe 1 

Brunella,  (Self-heal) 1 

Scutellaria,  (Skull-cap) 4 

Marrubium,  (Horehound)  from  Europe 1 

Stachys,  (Hedge-nettle) , 2 

Leonurus,  (Motherwort)  from  Europe 1 

78.  ORDER  BORRAGINACE^E,  (Borage  Family.) 

Echium 1 

Mertensia,  (Lungwort) 1 

Myosotis,  (Scorpion-grass) 2 

Cynoglossum,  ( Hound' s-tongue) 2 

79.  ORDER  HYDROPHYLLACE^I,  (Water-leaf  Family.) 

Hydrophyllum,  (Water-leaf) 2 


FLORA   OF   THE   MOUNTAIN.  271 
80.  ORDER  POLEMONIACEJE,  (Polemonium  Family.) 

GENERA.  SPECIES. 

Phlox,  (Phlox) 4 

81.  ORDER  CONVOLVULACE^:,  (Convolvulus  Family.) 

Ipomoea,  (Man-of-the-Earth) 1 

Cuscuta,  (Dodder) 1 

82.  ORDER  SOLANACE^E,  (Nightshade  Family.) 

Solanum,  (Nightshade,)  from  Europe 3 

Physalis,  (Ground  Cherry) 1 

Datura,  (Thorn  Apple)  introduced 1 

83.  ORDER  GENTIAN ACE^:,  (Gentian  Family.) 

Sabbatia,,  (American  Centaury) 1 

Gentiana,  (Gentian) 2 

84.  ORDER  APOCYNACEJE,  (Dogbane  Family.) 
Apocynum,  (Indian  Hemp) 2 

85.  ORDER  ASCLEPIADACE^:,  (Milkweed  Family.) 

Asclepias,  (Silk-weed) 4 


86.  ORDER  OLEXCEJE,  (Olive  Family.) 
Fraxinus,  (enumerated) 


87.  ORDER  ARISTOLOCHIACEJE,  (Birthwort  Family.) 

Asarum,  (Wild  Ginger) 1 

Aristolochia,  (Birthwort) 1 

80.  ORDER  PHYTOLACCACEJJ;,  Poke  weed  Family.) 
Phytolacca,  (Pokeweed) 1 


90.  ORDER  CHENOPODIACE.E,  (Goosefoot  Family.) 
Chenopodium,  (from  Europe) 3 

91.  ORDER  AMARANTACEJE,  (Amaranth  Family.) 
Amarantus,  (Amaranth,)  introduced 3 

92.  ORDER  POLYGONACE^:,  (Buckwheat  Family.) 

Polygonum,  (Knotweed) * 7 

Fagopyrum,  (Buckwheat,)  from  Europe 1 

Rumex,  (Sorrel) 3 

93.  ORDER  LAURACEJE,  (Laurel  Family.) 

Sassafras,  (Sassafras) 1 

Benzoin,  (Wild  Allspice) 1 


272  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

94.  ORDER  THYMELEACE^E,  (Mezereum  Family.) 

GENERA.  SPECIES. 

Dirca,  (Leather-wood)  enumerated 

98.  ORDER  SAURURACE^E,  (Lizard' s-tail  Family.) 
Saururus,  (Lizard's-tail) 1 

100.  ORDER  CALLITRICHACE^E,  (Water  Star-wort  Family.) 
Callitriche, 1 

102.  ORDER  EUPHORBIACE^E,  (Spurge  Family.) 

Euphorbia,  (Spurge) 2 

Acalypha, 1 

104.  ORDER  URTICACE.E,  (Nettle  Family.) 

Ulmus,  (Elm)  enumerated 

Morus,  (Mulberry)  enumerated 

Urtica,  (Nettle) 1 

(2  introduced.) 

Pilea,  (Clear-weed) 1 

Cannabis,  (Hemp,)  from  Europe 1 

Humulus,  (Hop) 1 

105.  ORDER  PLATANACEJE,  (Plane-tree  Family.) 
Platanus,  (Button-wood,)  enumerated 


106.  ORDER  JUGLANDACEJE,  (Walnut  Family.) 

Juglans,  (Walnut,)  enumerated 

Gary  a,  (Hickory,)  "          , 


107.  ORDER  CUPULIFER^,  (Oak  Family.) 
(Enumerated.) 

108.  ORDER  MYRICACE^E,  (Sweet-Gale  Family.) 
Comptonia,  (Sweet  Fern) , , 


109.  ORDER  BETULACEJE,  (Birch  Family. 

(Enumerated.) 
Alnus,  (enumerated) 


110.  ORDER  SALIC ACE^B,  (Willow  Family.) 

Salix,  (enumerated) 

Populus,  (Poplar,  Aspen,)  enumerated 


FLOKA   OF   THE   MOUNTAIN.  273 

SUB-CLASS  II.— GYMNOSPERMJE. 

111.  ORDER  CONIFERS,  (Pine  Family.) 

GENERA.  SPECIES. 

Pinus,  (Pine,)  enumerated 

Abies,  (Spruce,  Fir,)  enumerated 

CuprSssus,  (White  Cedar) ? 

Juniperus,  (Juniper) ? 

Taxus,  (Yew,)  enumerated 


CLASS  II.—  ENDOGENOUS,  OR  MONOCOTYLE- 
DONOUS  PLANTS. 

112.  ORDER  ARACE^:,  (Arum  Family.) 

Arisseraa,  (Indian  Turnip) 2 

Symplocarpus,  (Skunk  Cabbage) 1 

Orontium,  Golden-club) 1 

113.  ORDER  TYPHACE.E,  (Cat-tail  Family.) 

Typha,  (Cat-tail) 2 

Sparganium,  (Bur-reed) 2 

114.  ORDER  LEMNACE^J,  (Duckweed  Family.) 
Lemna,  (Duck's-meat) 1 

115.  ORDER  NAIAD  ACE^:,  (Pondweed  Family.) 
Potamogeton,  (Pondweed) 5 

116.  ORDER  ALISMACEJE,  (Water-plantain  Family.) 

Alisma,  (Water- plantain) 1 

Sagittaria,  (Arrow-head) 2 

119.  ORDER  ORCHIDACEJS,  (Orchis  Family.) 

Orchis,  (Orchis) 1 

Platanthera,  (False  Orchis) 7 

Goodyera,  (Rattlesnake-plantain) 2 

Spiranthes,  (Lady's  Tresses) 1 

Listera, 1 

Arethusa,  (Arethusa) 1 

Microstylis 1 

Corallorhiza,  (Coral-root) 1 

Cypripedium,  (Lady's  Slipper) 3 


274  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

120.  ORDER  AMARYLLIDACE^E,  (Amaryllis  Family.) 

GENERA.  SPECIES. 

Hypoxys,  (Star-grass) 1 

121.  ORDER  H^MODORACE^;,  (Bloodwort  Family.) 
Aletris,  (Colic-root) 1 

123.  ORDER  IRIDACE^E,  (Iris  Family.) 

Iris,  (Flower-de-Luce) 1 

SisyrincMum,  (Blue-eyed  Grass) 1 

125.  ORDER  SMILACE.E,  (Smilax  Family.) 

Smilax,  (Greenbrier) 4 

Trillium,  (Wake  Robin) 3 

Medeola,  (Indian  Cucumber-root) 1 

126.  ORDER  LILIACE.E,  (Lily  Family.) 

Asparagus,  (from  Europe) 1 

Polygonatum,  (Solomon's  Seal) 2 

Smilacina,  (False  Solomon's  Seal) 3 

Clintonia,  (Clintonia) 2 

Allium,  (Onion,  Garlic) 2 

Lilium,  (Lily) 2 

Erythronium,  (Dog's-tooth  Violet) 1 

127.  ORDER  MELANTHACE^E,  (Colchicum  Family.) 

Uvularia,  (Bellwort) 2 

Streptopus,  (Twisted-stalk) 1 

Melanthium 1 

Veratrum,  (False  Hellebore) 1 

Helonias,  (Helonias) 1 

128.  ORDER  JUNCACEJJ,  (Rush  Family.) 

Juncus,  (Bog  Rush) , 7 

129.  ORDER  PONTEDERIACE^,  (Pickerel-weed  Family.) 

Schollera,  (Water  Star-grass) 1 

131.  ORDER  XYRIDACEJE,  (Yellow-eyed  Grass  Family.) 

Xyris,  (Yellow-eyed  Grass) ? 

133    ORDER  CTPERACE^:,  (Sedge  Family.) 

Cyperus,  (Galingale) ? 

Scirpus,  (Bulrush) ? 

Eriophorum,  (Cotton-grass) ? 

Rhynchospora 


FLORA    OF    THE    MOUNTAIN.  275 

GENERA.  SPECIES. 

Scleria ? 

Carex,  (Sedges) 30 

This  extensive  genus  of  obscure  and  intricately  re- 
lated plants  is  largely  represented  on  the  mountain. 
In  moist  spots  and  along  spring  streams,  pursuing 
the  general  habits  of  the  genus,  they  are  found  in 
fringes  and  tufts,  scattered  almost  ubiquitously  over 
humid  and  other  spaces.  Of  the  132  species  contri- 
buted by  John  Carey  to  Gray's  Manual,  casual  observa- 
tions have  brought  into  notice  some  thirty  species. 

134.  ORDER  GRAMINEJE,  (Grass  Family.) 

Alopecurus,  (Foxtail  Grass) 2 

Phleum,  (Cat's-tail  Grass,  Timothy)  from  Europe 1 

Sporobolus,  (Drop-seed  Grass) 1 

Agrostis,  (Bent-Grass) 1 

Muhlenbe'rgia ? 

Calarnagrostis,  (Reed  Bent-Grass) 2  ? 

Stipa,  (Feather-Grass) ? 

Tricuspis,  (Tall-red-top) 

Kreleria,  (Koeleria) 

Eatonia 

Glyceria,  (Manna-Grass) 2  ? 

Poa,  (Meadow-Grass,  Spear-Grass) 6 

Bromus,  (Brome-Grass,)  from  Europe 3 

Triticum,  (Wheat) 

Hordeum,  (Barley) 

Elymus,  (Wild  Rye) 1 

Aira,  (Hair-Grass) 2 

Danthonia,  (Wild  Oats) 

Avena,  (Oat) 

Holcus,  (Meadow  Soft-grass)  from  Europe 1 

Phalaris,  (Canary-Grass) 

Milium,  (Millet-Grass) 

Panicum,  (Panic-Grass) 7 

Sorghum,  (Broom  Corn) 


276  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

(SEE  ANTE,  p.  250.) 

"Given,  the  head  of  Socrates,  the  wisest  philosopher  of  Greece, 
and  a  Protococcus  pluvialis,  a  microscopic  single-cell  plant,  is  there 
no  'essential  distinction,'  and  to  which  does  the  word  incompre- 
hensible most  justly  apply  ?  Of  the  creation  and  destiny  (genesis, 
exodus)  of  a  cell,  or  a  limitless  congeries  of  cells,  (organic  bodies,) 
of  the  how  and  why  of  their  getting  into  special  shapes  or  living 
forms  from  the  sleep  of  inorganic  matter,  and  staying  there  to 
circulate  for  a  time  within  the  'ring'  of  natural  affinities,  then 
dropping  out  of  that  circulation  into  another  apparently  temporary 
sleep,  called  death, — or  of  the  creation  and  destiny  (genesis,  exodus) 
of  a  man  or  numberless  congeries  of  men,  (Humanity,)  of  the  how 
and  why  of  their  assuming  particular  styles  of  existence  and 
circulating  for  a  time  within  the  grasp  of  supernatural  affinities 
(supersensuous,  quondam  spiritual, — immaterial  forces, — will,  intel- 
lection, sensation,  and  affection,  entities,  real  as  iron  or  stone,  but 
not  on  the  chemist's  table,  or  naturalist's  catalogue,)  and  also,  get- 
ting out  of  that  material  and  spiritual  circulation,  into  an  apparent 
sleep,  called,  likewise,  death,  what  has  the  microscopic  atom,  the 
proud  mote,  the  wise  monad,  man,  the  Philosopher,  to  say  ? 

"Place  the  dry  skulls  of  Plato  and  Shakspeare  beside  the  rup- 
tured and  effete  cells  of  the  Protococcus  pluvialis  and  Volvox  glo- 
bator,  and  say  which  are  the  most  inconceivable  existences,  which 
are  the  everlasting  wonder  of  wonders.  Does  not  the  cell  stand  the 
most  imposing  mystery,  the  most  incomprehensible  miracle?  The 
two  problems,  vast  towers ! !  loom  up  from  the  Infinite,  their  sum- 
mits and  bases  both  hidden  in  darkness  and  unapproachable  solitude. 
The  broad  gulf  between  them  can  only  be  passed  upon  the  wings  of 
a  purer  and  nobler  philosophy,  and  the  deep  abyss  can  only  be 
fathomed  by  the  plumb-line  of  a  profounder  and  more  earnest 
Faith." — ROBERT  SMITH,  Philosophical  and  Religious  Meditations, 
vol.  vii.  p.  472. 


FLORA    OF    THE   MOUNTAIN.  277 


FRUIT-TREES  AND  ESCULENT  VEGETABLES. 


FRUIT-TREES. 

THAT  the  Alleghany  could  supply  itself  with  fine  fruit  of  almost 
every  kind  there  is  not  the  slightest  doubt.  The  indifference  of  the 
mountain  counties  to  this  department  of  earth  cultivation,  as  well  as 
many  other  "  cultures,"  is  to  be  much  regretted  by  all  the  friends  of 
progress  of  that  region.  This  indifference  or  carelessness  is  not  con- 
fined, however,  to  the  mountain  districts  of  the  State.  The  follow- 
ing observations  of  the  venerable  Dr.  Darlington,  the  justly  celebrated 
botanist  of  Chester  County,  are,  it  would  seem,  as  applicable  to  his 
district  as  to  the  one  here  alluded  to.  Looking,  as  the  inhabitants 
of  the  wilderness  counties  do,  to  the  East  for  evidences  of  civili- 
zation and  light,  it  was  to  be  hoped  that  the  cultivated  county 
of  Chester  had  passed  the  "thoughtlessness"  at  least,  not  to  speak  of 
the  rudeness  and  barbarism  deplored  by  the  Doctor  in  one  part  of 
his  observations  on  this  subject.  He  says :  "  Indeed,  it  is  melancholy 
to  reflect  how  thoughtless  and  negligent  mankind  generally  are  with 
respect  to  providing  fruit  for  themselves.  There  are  few  persons 
who  do  not  own  or  occupy  sufficient  ground  to  admit  of  three  or  four 
choice  fruit-trees  and  a  grapevine ;  such,  for  instance,  as  an  apricot, 
a  peach,  a  May-duke  cherry,  a  Catharine  pear,  and  a  Catawba 
grape;  yet  the  great  majority  seem  never  to  think  of  planting  such 
trees,  while  they  are  ready  enough  to  invade  the  premises,  and  revel 
on  the  fruits  of  some  more  provident  neighbor !  It  is  due  to  the 
minor  morals  of  the  community  that  such  disreputable  negligence 
and  such  marauding  practices  should  cease  to  be  tolerated." — flora 
Cestrica,  p.  72. 

PYRUS  COMMUNIS,  common  Pyrus,  or  Pear-tree. — This  tree  is  a 
native  of  Europe.  There  are  many  varieties  of  this  delightful  fruit, 
which  should  be  cultivated  wherever  it  will  grow.  The  mountain 
counties  have  not  given  the  care  they  should  to  the  cultivation 
of  this  tree.  The  seedling  plant  grows  well  on  the  Alleghany,  and 
the  improved  varieties  would  of  course  flourish  equally  well.  Some 
fine  pears  have  been  produced  on  the  range,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped 
the  subject  will  receive  more  attention. 

PYRUS  MALUS,  Apple  Pyrus,  common  apple-tree. — This  species  is 
also  a  native  of  Europe.  Pomologists  have  produced  and  described 
almost  innumerable  varieties  of  this  wholesome  fruit.  It  will  grow 
every  place  in  Pennsylvania,  both  mountain-tops  and  valleys ;  but 

24 


278  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

little  attention  has  been  given  to  this  interesting  department  on  the 
Alleghany.  Some  fine  apples  have  been  produced,  and  every  variety 
and  quality  of  that  fruit  can  be  grown  there,  after  a  time  of  accli- 
mation of  buds  and  shoots. 

CYDONIA  VULGARIS,  Quince-tree. — This  well-known  tree  is  a  native 
of  Southern  Europe.  It  grows  well  on  the  Alleghany. 

PERSICA  VULQARIS,  common  Peach-tree. —  This  member  of  the 
almond  family  is  a  native  of  Persia.  It  does  not  find  on  the  Alle- 
ghany Mountain  a  very  genial  clime.  Persia  and  the  Alleghany 
are  widely-sundered  habitats,  but  as  that  mountain  has  a  vital  con- 
nection with  the  whole  globe  it  must  necessarily  unite  with  Persia  on 
some  issue  of  fate  and  nature.  The  peach,  it  seems,  is  this  happy 
bond,  not  to  mention  other  equally  interesting  radicles  of  associa- 
tion ! ! !  The  juices  of  the  fruit,  as  grown  on  the  mountain,  are  not 
exactly  Persian,  or  even  Jersey-an  in  their  deliciousness  of  flavor, 
nevertheless,  it  produces  a  peach  of  respectable  dimension,  and 
decidedly  agreeable  character.  It  requires  constant  watching  and 
renewing  by  planting,  as  the  frost  frequently  kills  it  entirely  to  the 
ground. 

ARMENIACA  VULGARIS,  Apricot. — This  delicious  fruit  is  a  native  of 
Armenia.  Very  little  attention  is  given  to  its  cultivation  in  the 
mountain  region  of  Pennsylvania,  and  on  the  Alleghany  none. 

PRUNUS  DOMESTICA,  common  plum,  Gage  or  Damascene. — The  cul- 
tivated plums  are  natives  of  Europe.*  Several  of  the  varieties  might 
be  cultivated  here  with  success,  if  attention  were  given  to  them. 
Those  that  have  been  tried  grow  well. 

CERASUS,  or  Cherry  genus. — Professor  de  Candolle  distributes  the 
commonly  cultivated  cherry  into  four  species ;  Dr.  Darlington  and 
others  into  two.  These  are  the  Prunus  (cerasus)  avium,  English,  or 
heart  cherry,  (sweet;)  and  the  Prunus  cerasus  (vulgaris,)  sour  red 
cherry,  or  Morello  cherry.  The  heart  cherry  grows  well  on  the  Alle- 
ghany, and  with  a  special  luxuriance  in  the  red  shales  of  the  eastern 
base  and  slope  of  the  mountain.  The  Morello  cherry  also  grows 
finely,  the  whole  cherry  family  seeming  to  have  the  most  friendly 
relations  to  the  mountain. f 

KIBES. — The  current  family  are  produced  in  quantities  on  the 
mountain.  These  are  the  Ribes  Uva-crispa,  or  gooseberry,  (Europe,) 
the  Ribes  rubrum,  or  red  currant,  (Europe,  )J  and  Ribes  nigrum,  or 
black  currant,  (also  Europe.)  Like  the  native  species  of  Ribes,  the 
introduced  species  seem  to  flourish  as  if  at  home. 

*  Prunus  domestica,  L.,  the  cultivated  plum,  is  now  deemed  by  the  best  botanists  to 
have  sprung  from  the  sloe.— Cray's  Manual,  p.  113. 
f  See  wild  cherry,  or  Serasus  Serotina.  now  Prunus  Serotina,  p.  220. 
%  Gray  recites  a  "  rubrum"  which  is  found  in  New  Hampshire  as  identical. 


FLORA   OF   TIIE*MOUNTAIN.      .  279 


ESCULENT  VEGETABLES. 

Of  the  introduced  esculent,  garden,  or  kitchen  vegetables,  the 
mountain  produces  nearly  all  the  ordinarily  cultivated  species  and 
varieties.  The  season  for  growing  pot-herbs,  or  edible  plants,  is 
short  here,  and  also  late,  as  the  frosts  of  spring  and  fall  come  close 
together.  They  almost  all,  however,  grow  profusely  with  any 
care,  and  many  varieties  assume  proportions  which  the  same 
plant  rarely  attains  in  the  lowlands.  Between  the  valleys  of  the 
eastern  and  western  parts  of  the  Slate  and  the  mountain  heights, 
knobs,  and  table-lands,  there  is  a  difference  in  the  time  of  growth  and 
perfection  of  garden  vegetables  (this  difference  applying  more  or 
less  to  the  whole  vegetable  world)  of  from  two  to  four  weeks.  The 
results  of  forcing  plants,  as  achieved  in  the  east  and  west  by  hot- 
beds, hot-houses,  and  protected  sites,  is  not  considered  in  this  gene- 
ral statement.  By  the  use  of  artificial  appliances,  hot-beds,  hot- 
houses, and  the  selection  of  sheltered  situations  in  the  mountain 
vegetables  could  be  brought  very  much  earlier  to  perfection,  and 
grown  there  with  the  finest  qualities  and  proportions.  This  sub- 
ject will  receive  more  attention,  in  certain  parts  of  the  mountain, 
soon,  and  extensive  experiments  will  be  made. 

At  the  present  time  the  farmers  of  that  district  have  only  small 
patches  of  a  few  yards  in  extent  for  kitchen-gardens,  and  cultivate 
only  such  plants  as  will  grow  without  much  care.  The  amount  of 
vegetables  produc.ed  in  many  of  these  little  gardens  is  quite  extra- 
ordinary, and  shows  that  the  mountain's  climate  and  soil,  with  any 
industry,  are  very  favorable  and  friendly  to  the  class  of  edible 
plants.  One  point  of  advantage  possessed  by  this  region  is,  that 
when  the  staple  products  of  the  garden  have  passed  their  season, 
and  are  withered  and  dried  in  the  valleys  and  lowlands  east  and 
west,  the  mountain  has  them  green  and  fresh,  and  in  the  highest 
perfection. 

The  following  vegetables  grow  well  on  the  mountain : — 

BRASS ICA  OLERACEA,  Cabbage. — This  is  a  native  of  Europe,  and 
thrives  here  with  several  of  its  varieties  or  sub-species.  These  are 
the  "acephala,"  or  tree-cabbage,  (leaves  not  forming  heads,)  the 
"bullata,"  or  savoy  cabbage,  with  finely  crisped  leaves,  and  the 
"capitata,"  or  York  cabbage,  with  dense  head.  The  variety  Caulo- 
rapa,  (Kohl-Rabi,)  bulked-stalked  cabbage,  grows  finely,  also  variety 
"  cauliflora." 

The  BRASSICA  RAPA,  sub-species  "depressa,"  or  common  turnip, 
grows  well  also. 


280  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

RAPHANUS  SATIVUS,  Garden  Radish. — This  plant,  a  native  of  China, 
is  hardy,  and  grows  almost  every  place.  There  are  several  varieties 
or  sub-species,  as  "radicula,"  "rotunda,"  "turnip  radish,"  oblonga, 
common  radish,  also  varieties  of  the  "niger." 

HIBISCUS  ESCULENTUS,  Okra. — This  plant  will  grow  here,  but  has 
not  been  cultivated  much.  It  is  a  native  of  India. 

PISUM  SATIVUM,  Garden  Pea,  and  its  varieties,  are  produced  in 
abundance. 

PHASEOLUS  VULGAKIS,  String  Bean,  common  pole-bean,  and  Lu- 
nata  or  Lima  Bean,  grow  well,  but  the  latter  will  scarcely  ripen  on 
account  of  the  shortness  of  the  season. 

The  APIUM  GRAVEOLENS,  Celery,  PETROSELINUM  SATIVUM,  Parsley, 
CARUM  and  FCENICULUM,  Caraway,  and  FENNEL,  as  already  remarked 
in  the  catalogue,  grow  well.  The  DAUCUS  CAROTA,  Garden  Car- 
rot, variety  Sativa,  and  PASTINACA  SATIVA,  Garden  Parsnip,  also 
Umbelliferous  plants,  nourish  equally  well. 

CUCUMIS  SATIVUS,  Common  Cucumber. — This  plant  is  a  native  of 
Asia.  It  grows  well,  but  the  CUCUMIS  MELO,  Musk  Melon,  will 
not  ripen  on  the  mountain. 

CUCURBITA  PEPO,  Pumpkin;  varieties  do  well,  also  the  CUCURBITA 
MELOPEPO  and  VERRUCOSA. 

TRAGOPOGON,  Oyster  Plant,  grows  well. 

LACTUCA  SATIVA,  Common  Lettuce,  Salad,  a  native  of  India,  and 
HELIANTHUS  TUBEROSUS,  Jerusalem  Artichoke,  a  Brazilian  plant, 
also  flourish. 

The  BETA  VULGARIS,  Common  Garden  Beet,  has  several  varieties, 
all  of  which,  including  the  Mangel-wurzel,  cultivated  for  cattle, 
grow  well. 

SPINACIA  OLERACE.E,  Spinach,  and  ASPARAGUS  OFFICINALIS,  As- 
paragus, (from  Europe,)  grow  well. 

ALLIUM. — Several  onions  are  easily  produced,  as  ALLIUM  CEPA, 
Garden  Onion,  PORIUM,  Garden  Leek,  SATIVUM,  Garlick,  and  SCCENO- 
PRASUM,  or  Chives. 

The  LTCOPERSICUM  ESCULENTUM,  or  Tomato,  grows  well,  but  the 
seasons  are  too  short  to  produce  or  ripen  the  fruit  without  a  hot- 
house to  develop  the  plants  largely  before  planting  out. 

The  SOLANUM  MELONGENUM,  or  Egg  Plant,  might  be  cultivated  if 
the  same  care  were  taken. 

The  SOLANUM  TUBEROSUM,  or  Common  Potato,  is  particularly 
adapted  to  the  soil  of  the  mountain. 

RHEUM  RHAPONTICUM,  or  Pie  Rhubarb.  This  plant,  a  native  of 
Scythia,  grows  luxuriantly. 


FAUNA; 


OE, 

ANIMAL  LIFE  OF  THE  MOUNTAIN. 


24* 


"THE  Animal  Kingdom  is  only  a  dismemberment  of  the  highest 
animal,  i.e.  of  man." 

OKEN. 


"Few  views  of  the  relations  existing  in  the  organic  world  have 
received  so  much  approbation  as  this :  that  the  higher  animal  forms, 
in  the  several  stages  of  development  of  the  individual,  from  the  be- 
ginning of  its  existence  to  its  complete  formation,  correspond  to  the 
permanent  forms  in  the  animal  series,  and  that  the  development  of 
the  several  animals  follows  the  same  laws  as  those  of  the  entire  ani- 
mal series  ;  that,  consequently,  the  more  highly  organized  animal,  in 
its  individual  development  passes  in  all  that  is  essential  through  the 
stages  that  are  permanent  below  it,  so  that  the  periodical  differences 
of  the  individual  may  be  reduced  to  the  differences  of  the  permanent 
animal  forms.  The  different  animal  forms  do  not  present  one  uni- 
serial  development,  from  the  monad  up  to  man." 

K.  E.  VON  BAEB. 


"All  these  divisions  blend  into  each  other  at  their  confines,  and 
form  a  circle  In  this  manner  we  proceed,  beginning  with  the  higher 
groups,  and  descending  to  the  lower,  until  at  length  we  descend  to 
the  genera,  properly  so  called,  and  reach,  at  last,  the  species  ;  every 
group,  whether  large  or  small,  forming  a  circle  of  its  own.  Thus, 
there  are  circles  within  circles,  wheels  within  wheels, — an  infinite 
number  of  complicated  relations ;  but  all  regulated  by  one  simple 
and  uniform  principle,  that  is,  the  circularity  of  every  group." 

McLEAY. 

282 


"The  attempt  at  representing  graphically  the  complicated  rela- 
tions which  exist  among  animals  has,  however,  had  one  good  result : 
it  has  checked,  more  and  more,  the  confidence  in  the  uniserial  ar- 
rangement of  animals,  and  led  to  the  construction  of  many  valuable 
maps  exhibiting  the  multifarious  relations  which  natural  groups,  of 
any  rank,  bear  to  one  another." 

AGASSIZ  on  MCLEAT. 


"Let  it,  therefore,  never  be  supposed,  that  because  one  genus,  or 
one  family,  is  placed  before  another,  we  consider  it  more  perfect  or 
superior  to  the  others  in  the  system  of  beings.  He  alone  could  build 
up  such  a  pretension,  who  would  attempt  to  place  animal  nature  on 
a  single  line ;  such  a  project  we  have  long  since  renounced  as  one  of 
the  most  false  that  can  be  entertained  in  natural  history.  We  should, 
on  the  contrary,  consider  each  being,  each  group  of  beings,  in  itself 
and  in  the  character  it  sustains  by  its  properties  and  organization, 
and  abstract  none  of  its  relations  or  connections  with  other  beings, 
whether  they  be  near  or  remote." 

HAMILTON  SMITH  on  BAKON  CUVIER. 

283 


"We  are,  indeed,  free  to  admit  that  Swedenborg's  tools  have  been 
handled  and  improved  since  his  own  time.  The  law  of  series,  to 
which  he  attributed  so  much,  has  been  set  in  a  new  light,  and  made 
into  a  machine  of  tenfold  power,  by  Charles  Fourier;  and  analogy 
has  been  only  too  prolific  in  the  hands  of  the  German  Oken.  The 
latter,  we  may  remark,  is  all  analogy,  with  no  roots.  The  day  of 
railroads  has  been  preceded  by  railroads  in  thought,  with  all  the 
excesses  and  expenses  of  their  material  types,  and  these  mental  iron- 
ways  are  the  analogies  between  different  provinces  of  nature,  where- 
by sciences,  incommunicable  hitherto  as  Japan  or  China,  are  now 
running  into  each  other  for  mere  lust  of  travel." 

WILKINSON  on  FOURIER,  OKEN,  and  SWEDENBORG. 


"Control  your  language  or  your  language  will  control  you." 

WASHINGTON  MCCARTNEY  on  ROBERT  SMITH. 


284 


"Now  that  the  current  is  setting  so  strongly  against  everything 
which  recalls  the  German  physiophilosophers  and  their  doings,  and 
it  has  become  fashionable  to  speak  ill  of  them,  it  is  an  imperative 
duty  for  the  impartial  reviewer  of  the  history  of  science  to  show  how 
great  and  how  beneficial  the  influence  of  Oken  has  been  upon  the 
progress  of  science  in  general  and  of  Zoology  in  particular.  It  is, 
moreover,  easier,  while  borrowing  his  ideas,  to  sneer  at  his  style  and 
his  nomenclature  than  to  discover  the  true  meaning  of  what  is  left 
unexplained  in  his  mostly  paradoxical,  sententious,  or  aphoristical 
expressions;  but  the  man  who  has  changed  the  whole  method  of 
illustrating  comparative  Osteology ;  who  has  carefully  investigated 
the  embryology  of  the  higher  animals,  at  a  time  when  few  physio- 
logists were  paying  any  attention  to  the  subject;  who  has  classified 
the  three  kingdoms  of  nature  upon  principles  wholly  his  own ;  who 
has  perceived  thousands  of  homologies  and  analogies  among  or- 
ganized beings  entirely  overlooked  before;  who  has  published  an 
extensive  treatise  of  natural  history,  containing  a  condensed  account 
of  all  that  was  known  at  the  time  of  its  publication :  who  has  con- 
ducted for  twenty-five  years  the  most  extensive  and  most  complete 
periodical  review  of  the  natural  sciences  ever  published,  in  which 
every  discovery  made  during  a  quarter  of  a  century  is  faithfully  re- 
corded ;  the  man  who  inspired  every  student  with  an  ardent  love  for 
science,  and  with  admiration  for  his  teacher, — that  man  will  never 
be  forgotten,  nor  can  the  services  he  has  rendered  to  science  be  over- 
looked, so  long  as  thinking  is  connected  with  investigation." 

AGASSIZ  on  OKEN. 


285 


"  No  animal,  excepting  man,  inhabits  every  part  of  the  surface  of 
the  earth.  Each  great  geographical  or  climatal  region  is  occupied 
by  some  species  not  found  elsewhere ;  and  each  animal  dwells 
within  certain  limits,  beyond  which  it  does  not  range  while  left  to 
its  natural  freedom,  and  within  which  it  always  inclines  to  return, 
when  removed  by  accident  or  design.  Man  alone  is  a  cosmopolite. 
His  domain  is  the  whole  earth.  For  him,  and  with  a  view  to  him, 
it  was  created.  His  right  to  it  is  based  upon  his  organization  and 
his  relation  to  Nature,  and  is  maintained  by  his  intelligence  and  the 
perfectibility  of  his  social  condition. 

"A  group  of  animals  which  inhabits  any  particular  region,  em- 
bracing all  the  species,  both  aquatic  and  terrestrial,  is  called  its 
Fauna ;  in  the  same  manner  as  the  plants  of  a  country  are  called 
its  Flora. 

"  There  is  an  evident  relation  between  the  fauna  of  any  locality 
and  its  temperature,  although,  as  we  shall  hereafter  see,  similar 
climates  are  not  always  inhabited  by  similar  animals.  Hence,  the 
faunas  of  the  two  hemispheres  have  been  distributed  into  three 
principal  divisions,  namely,  the  arctic,  the  temperate,  and  the  tropi- 
cal faunas ;  in  the  same  manner  as  we  have  arctic,  temperate,  and 
tropical  floras.  Hence,  also,  animals  dwelling  at  high  elevations 
upon  mountains,  where  the  temperature  is  much  reduced,  resemble 
the  animals  of  colder  latitudes  rather  than  those  of  the  surrounding 
plains." 

AGASSIZ  and  GOULD. 


286 


"The  Rocky  Mountains,  rising  through  the  level  of  vegetable 
barrenness  to  that  of  perpetual  snow,  are,  at  their  highest  eleva- 
tions, unsuitable  to  the  existence  and  support  of  animal  life ;  and 
constitute  a  barrier  impenetrable  to  nearly  every  class  of  animals. 
The  country  westward  of  those  mountains  is  therefore  separated, 
zoologically  as  well  as  geographically,  from  that  eastward  of  them ; 
the  species  common  in  the  more  eastern  divisions  are  there  replaced 
by  other  and  different  forms ;  and  it  is  thus  a  distinct  zoological 
region. 

"The  Apalachian  ranges,  on  the  other  hand,  of  moderate  eleva- 
tion, covered  for  the  most  part  to  their  summits  with  forests,  and 
presenting  no  limit  to  the  support  of  animal  life,  are  easily  pene- 
trated at  many  points  through  their  defiles,  and  present  but  few 
obstacles  to  the  extension  of  species.  They  constitute  NO  zoological 
barrier  to  the  land  mollusks,  although  they  do  to  some  other  animals; 
and  if,  owing  to  their  altitude  and  consequent  diminution  of  tem- 
perature, individuals  are  less  numerous  on  their  summits  than  in  the 
valleys,  this  effect  is  climatic  alone." 

AMOS  BINNET, 

Terrestrial  Air-Breathing  Mollusks  of  the 
United  States,  vol.  i.  p.  106. 

28T 


CHAPTER  Y. 


FAUNA  OF  THE  MOUNTAIN, 

THE  animal  life  of  the  mountains  of  Pennsylvania  is  em- 
braced within  the  division  of  temperate  faunas  of  the  globe, 
or  that  portion  of  the  surface  of  the  planet  included  be- 
tween the  arctic  and  tropical  parallels.  The  forms  of  this 
fauna  are  not  much  diversified,  and  present  a  medium  va- 
riety between  the  region  north  of  the  tree  limit  or  isothermal 
zero,  the  line  of  perpetual  ground-frost,  and  the  tropical  zone 
of  plants  and  animals.  Extending  from  the  vast  desolate  plains 
surrendered  to  the  tyranny  of  the  frost-power  to  the  region 
of  the  sun's  fires,  with  its  arid  extents  of  sand-deserts,  this 
temperate  region  presents  an  interesting  series  of  animal 
structures.  A  transition  from  the  dreary  monotony  of  one 
belt  to  the  brilliant  diversity  of  the  other,  the  temperate 
regions  are  the  theatre  of  life-manifestations,  free  from  ex- 
cessive contrasts,  the  intensation  of  the  action  of  pure 
physical  forces,  and  the  absolute  despotism  of  the  laws  of 
matter,  as  shown  by  the  multitudinous,  eccentric,  and  pecu- 
liar forms  of  plant,  bird,  quadruped,  fish,  and  reptile  of  the 
equatorial  regions,  and  the  excessive  but  somewhat  mono- 
tonous animality  of  the  maritime  fauna  of  the  arctic  world. 
The  predominance  of  the  plain  and  useful  types  of  the 
temperate  region,  as  shown  in  the  large,  quiet  mammals, 
the  ox,  the  bison,  the  deer,  the  horse,  the  hog,  the  tribes 
that  follow  the  bread  cereals,  must  strike  the  most  un- 
observant when  contrasted  with  the  enormous  reptiles,  the 
288 


MAN.  289 

groups  of  quadrumana  or  monkeys,  felines  or  cats,  in  the  shape 
of  tigers  and  lions,  pachyderms,  as  elephants,  hippopotami, 
and  tapirs  of  the  equatorial  belts,  or  with  the  peculiar  forms 
of  the  Arctic,  as  the  Esquimaux  man,  with  the  reindeer  and 
northern  fox,  or  the  vast  whales,  walruses,  and  seals  of  the 
frozen  seas  of  polar  spaces.  It  need  scarcely  be  observed,  that 
the  great  representative  of  all  the  kingdoms  and  of  all  the 
zones  and-  habitats  of  Nature,  man  himself,  shows,  in  the 
temperate  region,  the  supreme  perfection  of  his  organiza- 
tion, and  the  fullest  development  of  his  power  as  a  physical, 
moral,  and  intellectual  being,  having  attained  in  this  golden 
mean  of  existence  a  shadowy  approach  to  the  ideal  splendor 
of  his  destiny,  free  from  the  enervating  and  sensualizing 
flames  of  the  tropics,  and  the  deadening  and  paralyzing 
frosts  of  the  Arctic  circles.  As  already  remarked,  the  moun- 
tain ranges  of  Pennsylvania  are  within  this  highly  favored 
portion  of  the  earth's  surface,  and  its  fauna  has  thus  the  com- 
mon characteristics  of  that  region  of  Divine  perfections. 

An  extensive  recitation  of  the  natural  history  of  its  in- 
digenous races  cannot  be  attempted,  however  interesting 
and  valuable  such  a  chapter  might  be,  not  only  to  the  lover 
of  nature,  but  to  the  student  of  the  economical  significance 
of  things. 

A  thorough  exploration  of  this  enchanted  realm  may  be 
reserved  for  a  future  effort,  to  be  elaborated  in  detail  for 
its  own  attraction. 


FIRST   GREAT   DIVISION   OF   THE   ANIMAL   KINGDOM. 

CLASS  I.— MAMMALIA. 

ORDER  BIMANA,  (Man.) 

The   original  or  indigenous   man,  as  the   head  of  this 
order,  has  disappeared  some  time  since.     In  the  scientific 
distribution  of  the  races  he  belongs  to  a  type  somewhat 
down  in  the  scale  of  classification  of  the  varieties  of  man, 
and  is  included  in  the  family  of  "  American  mongolidas." 
Of  this  type  he  is  an  evanescent  and  infirmly  rooted  race, 
25 


290  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

peculiar  in  his  instincts  and  habitudes,  not  juvenile  but 
apparently  senile,  showing  the  tendency  of  some  of  his  co- 
temporaries  of  the  lower  animal  world  to  vanish  from  the 
earth ;  unallied  to  other  races,  unprolific,  unfitted  to  civili- 
zation and  progress,  he  seems  like  the  deer  and  the  beaver, 
the  elk  and  the  wolf,  destined  to  extermination.  He  has 
left  scarcely  any  traces  of  himself  in  the  mountains  of  Penn- 
sylvania, or  any  record  that  he  has  ever  been  there.  The 
Indian  graveyards,  somewhat  numerous  in  the  valleys  of  the 
State,  that  are  now  rich  agricultural  districts,  are  scarcely 
met  with  on  the  mountain  ranges  at  all.  Perhaps  these 
valleys  were  better  original  hunting-grounds,  and  more 
thickly  peopled  by  the  red  man  and  the  animals  upon  which 
he  fed,  which  accounts  for  the  greater  number  of  relics  of 
him  being  left  in  those  localities  than  elsewhere.  His  pre- 
sent successor  is  a  different  order  of  man,  coming  from  the 
mixed  varieties  of  another  style  of  immortals,  the  now  domi- 
nant Anglo-American  race  becoming  prominent  in  history 
for  its  energy,  sharpness,  lawlessness,  go-a-headism,  and 
general  diabolism, 

He  is  the  issue  of  numberless  fusions  or  crosses  of  diver- 
sified varieties  of  the  great  typical  Caucasian  form,  the  pre- 
dominating mixture  being  that  of  Teutone  and  Celt.  In  the 
range  of  mountainous  counties  there  is  a  variety  in  this  mix- 
ture. In  the  southwestern  part  of  the  chain  in  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania  there  is  a  preponderance  of  the  Teutonic  ele- 
ment. The  middle  portion  of  the  range  shows  an  excess  of 
Celt.  The  northeastern  continuation  brings  in  again  the  Teu- 
tone as  the  prevailing  variety.  A  critical  observation  of  the 
results  brought  about  by  human  efforts  in  the  reclamation  of 
these  mountain  ranges  from  the  dominion  of  savage  nature, 
will  discover  the  characteristic  features  of  each  variety,  as 
revealed  by  the  condition  of  the  surface  :  roads  and  fields, 
ditches  and  fence-rows,  houses  and  churches,  bridges  and 
barns,  and  demonstrate  the  prevailing  material  and  spiritual 
forces  at  work  in  the  industrial  operations  of  those  regions. 

As  the  mountains  reveal  an  excess  of  the  mineral  ele- 


MONKEYS.  291 

ments  which  form  the  deserts  of  the  world,  the  great 
sand  or  silicious  formations,  the  true  skeleton  material  of 
the  globe,  and  show  smaller  quantities  of  pulverulent  slates, 
shales,  and  limestone,  it  follows  that  the  soil  is  not  so 
promising  or  inviting  to  the  Teutone,  with  his  instincts  for 
growing  wheat  and  Indian-corn.  This  would  not  deter  the 
more  reckless,  romantic,  erratic,  and  unthrifty  Celt,  with  his 
native  affinities  for  adventures,  improvidence,  hostility  to  cul- 
ture, clannish  habitudes  and  gregarious  instincts.  These  ele- 
ments have  so  impressed  certain  of  the  mountain  counties 
as  to  be  easily  discoverable  to  the  most  careless  observer. 

It  is  in  these  mountain  regions,  however,  that  some  of  the 
most  perfectly  developed  specimens  of  men  have  been  pro- 
duced, Herculean  in  form  and  strength,  and  who  have  lived, 
or  are  living,  to  be  near  a  century  old,  and  have  shown  cha- 
racters as  manly  and  noble  as  their  physical  frames. 

.     MOXKEYS. 
ORDER  QUADRUMANA. 

Descending  from  man,  as  the  great  prince  of  mammals, 
the  next  order  of  creation  is  the  quadrumana  or  monkeys. 
There  are  no  indigenous  monkeys  on  the  Alleghany  Moun- 
tain in  Pennsylvania,  but  quite  a  number  of  animals  bearing 
so  strong  a  resemblance  to  that  order  that  it  might  be  em- 
barrassing to  the  future  naturalist  to  include  them  in  that 
order,  and  at  the  same  time  omit  to  mention  the  fact  that 
they  are  generally  supposed  to  belong  to  the  order  Bimana, 
genus  Homo,  or  Man.  Of  the  numerous  order  quadrumana, 
as  described  by  Martin  in  his  great  work  on  "Man  and 
Monkeys,"  the  genus  of  anthropoid  apes,  to  which  this  ani- 
mal is  allied,  is  either  the  Pithecus  satyrus  (orang,)  the 
Hylobates  leucogenys  (Gibbon,)  or  Troglodytes  (chimpan- 
zee.) They  have  many  points  in  common  with  the  senii- 
terrestrial  baboons,  but  their  connection  with  the  niam 
mams,  or  Ghilanes*  is  problematical,  as  they  are  of  a  differ- 

*  For  an  account  of  this  race,  see  the  French  traveler,  C.  L. 
du  Couret's — or  Hadji-abd-el-Hained-Bay  (as  he  called  himself)— 


292  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

ent  color,  and  have  rougher  skins,  and  the  caudal  prolonga- 
tion of  the  vertebral  column  has  been  abraded  by  an  obstinate 
indulgence  in  the  sitting  posture,  the  animal  being  given 
much  to  contemplation,  and  quietly  beholding  the  flow  of 
the  river  of  time.  The  great  predominance  of  the  bones 
and  muscles  of  the  face,  the  protrusion  and  magnitude  of 
the  jaws,  constituting  the  prognathous  muzzle,  or  counte- 
nance which  may  be  taken  hold  of,  together  with  the  ex- 
treme minuteness  of  the  brain-box  or  skull,  would  point 
rather  to  the  Hylobates.  Its  chief  characteristics  are  love 
of  potatoes  and  whisky,  indolence  and  ease,  being  proverbi- 
ally improvident  and  disposed  to  let  things  alone,  with  the 
exception  of  an  occasional  affectionate  surveillance  of  the 
neighboring  hen-coops  and  sheep-pens.* 


BATS. 

FAMILY  OF  CHEIROPTERA,  (Bats.) 

This  is  a  peculiar  group  of  animals,  and  one  which  would 
seem,  at  first  sight,  to  belong  to  anything  but  the  class  of 
mammals.  They  are,  however,  in  that  class,  and  have  not 
the  organization  of  the  bird.  Their  leathery  wings  are  ex- 
pansions of  the  skin  over  the  enormously  elongated  bones 
of  the  arm  and  fingers.  Although  in  the  order  carnivora, 
some  of  the  family  are  frugivorous,  the  others  being  in- 
sectivorous. Their  habits  of  whirling  through  the  air  at 
twilight  and  night  in  pursuit  of  their  insect  prey,  their 

description  of  a  specimen  lie  saw  in  1842,  who  was  a  slave  of  an 
Emir  of  Mecca,  published  in  the  Annual  of  Scientific  Discovery  for 
1850,  article  Zoology,  p.  318.  Consult  also  the  Lucubrations  of  the 
venerable  Banks,  of  Indiana,  on  the  influences  which  hold  in  arrested 
development  the  "unlettered"  varieties  of  man. 

*  The  missionary  who  attempts  to  evangelize  this  "variety"  ought 
to  be  provided  with  a  goodly  number  of  steel  traps  of  sufficient 
strength  to  hold  a  bear ;  also  with  a  quantity  of  cat-o'-nine-tails,  and 
commence  the  work  of  regeneration  by  a  direct  address,  vigorously 
applied,  to  the  skin  of  the  back. 


BAT!?.  293 

custom  of  long  winter-sleeping;  in  caves,  together  with  their 
singular  and  revolting  forms,  are  familiar  to  all.  There  are 
a  number  of  bats  on  the  mountain.  The  venerable  Le  Conte, 
whose  wonderful  mind  seems  to  have  left  no  department  of 
nature  unexplored,  has  given  the  best  descriptive  catalogue 
of  North  American  bats.*  Of  the  fifteen  species  of  the  genus 
Yespertilio  described  by  him,  five  are  found  on  the  Alle- 
ghanies  in  Pennsylvania. 

YESPERTILIO  noveboracensis,  (Linn.) — This  is  a  universally 
diffused  and  common  member  of  the  family.  It  is  generally 
found  about  houses  and  other  buildings,  so  that  this  bat  is 
as  familiar  almost  as  the  common  rat.  It  is  found  from 
Canada  to  Florida,  and  numerous  everywhere. 

YESPERTILIO  cinereus,  (Pal  de  B.) — This  is  not  so  common 
a  species  here.  "  It  is  the  largest  of  all  the  bats  found  in 
the  United  States,"  its  length  being  six  inches. 

YESPERTILIO  fuscus,  (Pal  de  B.) — "  This  species  is  common 
in  the  Northern  States." 

YESPERTILIO  pulverulentus,  (Tern.) — "  Inhabits  from  New 
York  to  Georgia." 

YESPERTILIO  subulatus,  (Say.) — This  is  the  common  little 
brown  bat,  flapping  about  every  place  at  night,  even  pur- 
suing its  prey  into  houses. 

Where  bats  accumulate  in  caves  for  their  winter  lethargy 
their  number  is  almost  incredible.  They  seek  the  dry  parts 
of  the  caverns,  sticking  to  the  walls  and  hanging  in  enormous 
bunches  by  their  hooks  to  each  other.  They  no  doubt  cling 
together  for  mutual  comfort,  thus  preserving  their  natural 
temperature  by  contact  with  the  furry  and  hairy  covering  of 
each  other's  bodies.  These  living,  black,  ghastly  festoons, 
give  quite  an  expression  of  infernalism  to  the  caves  in  which 
they  congregate  ;  and  myriads  thus  collecting  together  and 

*  See  "  Observations  on  the  North  American  species  of  Bats,"  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia,  vol. 
vii.  p.  431. 

25* 


294  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

remaining  in  a  torpid  dozy  state,  fill  the  air  of  those  caverns 
with  a  peculiar  and  offensive  odor. 

The  different  species  hybernate  together.  In  the  openings 
of  the  woods  on  the  mountain  during  the  summer,  they  are 
seen  in  numbers  circling  about  in  pursuit  of  their  prey. 
They  pass  the  day  in  the  loose  bark  of,  and  hollows  in,  the 
trees. 

SHREWS. 

SUB-ORDER  INSECTIVORA,  (Family  Soricidse.) 

Genus  SOREX,  (Linn.)  Species  Fimbripes,  (Bach.) — 
The  fringed  shrew  is  quoted  by  Baird*  as  being  found  on 
the  Alleghany  Mountain  in  Pennsylvania.  The  specimen 
referred  to  was  sent  by  Professor  Johnson  to  the  Academy 
of  Natural  Sciences,  Philadelphia. 

De  Kay  enumerates  a  list  of  several  species  of  the  genus 
Sorex,  whose  geographic  range  would  include  Pennsylvania. 
These  are  "  Sorex  de  Kayi,"  to  which  he  gives  a  range  of 
"Atlantic  States  from  Massachusetts  to  Yirginia,"  "  Sorex 
brevicaudus,"  "  Sorex  parvus," "Sorex  Carolinensis,"  (which 
he  admits  to  be  extremely  doubtful,)  and  "  Sorex  Fosteri." 
The  last  named,  or  "  Foster's  shrew,"  is  said  to  be  found  as 
far  north  as  the  sixty-seventh  parallel,  and  was  observed  by 
Richardson  where  the  thermometer  descended  to  forty  and 
fifty  degrees  below  zero.  It  is  an  inhabitant  of  the  moun- 
tain, and  is  the  animal  which  makes  tracks  in  the  snow  with  a 
groove  made  by  its  tail  between  the  foot-prints.  It  constructs 
tunnels  through  the  snow  on  the  surface  of  the  ground,  fre- 
quently several  yards  in  length,  which,  when  the  snow  is 
melted,  remain  icy  tubes,  curved  and  twisted  in  all  direc- 
tions. An  intrepid  and  hardy  little  Esquimaux,  no  intensity 
of  cold  prevents  him  from  leaving  his  mark  on  every  snow 
that  falls. 

SOREX  platyrhinus. — Baird  gives  this  species  a  Pennsyl- 

*  Mammals  of  North  America,  by  S.  F.  Baird,  Smithsonian  Insti- 
tute, Pacific  report,  vol.  viii. 


MOLES.  295 

vania  range.     Several  of  the  shrews  are  inhabitants  of  the 
mountain. 

Genus  BLARINA.  Species  Talpoides,  (Sorex  Talpoides, 
Gupper.) — According  to  Baird,  "this  is  the  most  abundant 
of  North  American  shrews.  For  the  present,"  he  says,  "I 
shall  refer  all  the  large  shrews,  with  short  tails,  from  the 
Atlantic  States,  to  the  Talpoides."  He  considers  this  shrew 
as  identical  perhaps  with  several  species  of  Sorex  referred 
to  by  authors,  as  De  Kayi,  brevicandus,  Carolinensis,  brachy 
sorex,  etc.  He  gives  it  a  range  from  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia, 
and  Montreal  to  Columbus,  Ohio,  and  west,  also  south  to 
Georgia,  and  from  "latitude  45'30  to  32-30;  longitude 
63-30  to  81-30."  He  also  quotes  the  Blarina  Cinerea,  or 
ash-colored  mole,  as  ranging  geographically  from  South 
Pennsylvania  to  Florida. 

MOLES. 

Genus  SCALOPS,  (Cuvier.)  Species  Aquaticus. — The 
common  shrew  mole  has  a  wide  range,  said  to  be  found 
from  50°  north  latitude  to  Carolina,  and  from  the  shores  of 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  It  is  not  abundant  on  the 
mountain,  which  may  be  accounted  for  by  the  roughness 
of  the  soil,  stony  and  rugged  surfaces  not  being  favorable  to 
its  habits  of  life.  It  prefers  to  inhabit  moist,  loose  earth 
occupied  by  multitudes  of  insects,  worms,  etc.  It  is  a  great 
annoyance  to  the  gardener,  turning  up  and  tunneling  his 
walks,  and  also  (as  is  said)  devouring  the  planted  seeds.  (?) 
Godman  has  made  his  biography  an  interesting  chapter, 
in  the  Rambles  of  a  Naturalist. 

SCALOPS  Breweri. — The  hairy-tailed  mole  has  a  range 
from  "  Connecticut  and  New  York  to  Cleveland,  Ohio." 
Mr.  John  Cassin,  the  distinguished  ornithologist,  (who  is 
also  an  accomplished  naturalist  in  other  departments  of 
science,)  observed  this  mole  near  the  Chestnut  Ridge,  one 
of  the  western  parallel  ranges  of  the  Alleghanies  in  West- 
moreland County.  It  is  found  in  the  table-land  flats  along 
streams,  but  not  high  upon  the  mountain. 


296  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

Genus  CONDYLURA,  (Illiger.)  Species  Cristata.  —  The 
star-nosed  mole  is  found  in  Pennsylvania,  having  a  "range 
from  Hudson's  Bay  to  Virginia." — D.  K.  It  is  an  inhabit- 
ant of  the  mountain. 


CATS. 

ORDER  RAPACIA,  (Family  FelidaB.) 
FELIS  Maniculata,  or  domestic  cat,  abounds. 
FELIS  Concolor,  (Linn.,)  panther,  cougar,  or  northern 
catamount. — The  range  of  this  powerful  and  beautiful  feline 
is  from  "47°  north  latitude  to  54°  south."  (?)  It  is  still  found 
in  numbers  in  the  wilderness  part  of  the  Alleghany  range, 
in  Pennsylvania.  It  is  a  very  formidable  animal,  and  the 
memories  of  the  first  inhabitants,  many  of  whom  survive, 
are  full  of  thrilling  adventures  and  incidents  connected  with 
their  hunts  of  the  panther,  and  close  ungenial  proximity 
with  a  forester  for  whom  they  entertained  the  most  sincere 
hatred,  and  against  whom  they  waged  eternal  war.* 

LYNX  Rufus,  (Felis  Rufa,  Temminck,)  "Mountain  cat," 
"American  wild  cat." — This  cat  is  found  in  considerable 
numbers  on  the  Alleghanies.  It  has  a  wide  range  from  the 
"Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  and  from  the  waters  of  the  Missis- 
sippi to  the  Gila  river." 

*  Felis  Malta,  (1. 0.  S.  M.) — This  species  of  cat  is  not  abund- 
ant on  the  Alleghany.  It  is  said  to  be  a  descendant  of  a  regal  and 
far-famed  race,  even  the  primeval  pre-Adamite  Cat  of  cats.  The  in- 
conceivably rapid  propagation  of  this  species  in  many  places  is  one 
of  the  profoundest  scientific  problems  of  the  hour,  and  seems  to  be 
a  pei'petual  and  inscrutable  mystery.  Myriads  are  springing  up  in 
certain  localities  as  if  by  some  spontaneous  and  prolific  teeming  of  the 
earth.  Very  little  is  known  of  their  habits,  except  that  their  prowl- 
ings  and  caterwaulings  are  eminently  nocturnal.  They  are  said,  by 
those  who  pretend  to  know  something  about  them,  to  be  like  other 
felines,  predatory,  carnivorous,  and  somewhat  diabolical ;  but  others 
who  have  observed  their  habits  as  closely  as  practicable,  assert  that 
where  the  soft  foot  of  the  "Maltese"  falls,  the  celestial  manna  of 
charity  is  left,  with  the  blessings  of  heavenly  love. 


DOG — FOX.  297 

DOG. 

(Family  Canidae.) 

CANIS  Familiaris,  domestic  dog. — Some  thirty  varieties 
of  dog  are  said  to  be  introduced.  Of  these  the  most  com- 
mon are,  Molossus,  or  bull-dog,  Sagax,  or  hound,  Avicularis, 
or  pointer,  Graius,  or  greyhound,  several  kinds,  the  Ex- 
trarius,  or  spaniel,  the  Aquaticus,  or  poodle,  and  the 
Danicus,  or  spotted  carriage-dog.  Most  of  these  varieties 
are  on  the  mountain,  as  man  is  generally  accompanied  by 
this  domestic  wolf  wherever  he  goes. 

De  Kay  remarks  :  "Of  those  peculiar  to  North  America,  we 
find  variety  borealis,  Esquimaux,  lagopus,  and  terra-novae, 
Newfoundland,  Canadensis,  and  novae- Caledoniae." 

CANIS  Occidentalis,  (Canis  Lupus,  Harlan,)  variety 
Griseo-albus. — This  is  the  common  gray  wolf,  the  type  of 
indigenous  North  American  dogs,  and  has  the  range  of  the 
continent.  A  few  still  linger  in  the  remote  and  deepest 
fastnesses  of  the  Alleghanies,  and  indulge  in  their  ancient 
love  of  mutton  at  the  expense  of  the  husbandman.  As  a 
victim  of  the  hunt,  he  is  still  pursued  with  vindictive  hatred 
by  the  new  occupant  of  the  soil. 

FOX. 

YULPES  Fulvus,  red  fox.  —  The  common  red  fox  is 
abundant  on  the  mountain.  He  hides  in  inaccessible  places, 
burrowing  in  caverns,  rocks,  hollow  logs,  and  the  darkest 
ravines.  He  is  thus  protected  from  his  greatest  enemy,  man, 
as  an  object  of  diversion.  The  hound  can  still  penetrate 
his  retreats,  but  the  horseman  must  arrest  his  pursuit  in  the 
rougher  parts  of  the  mountain.  In  other  portions  of  the 
table-lands,  or  elevated  valleys  between  the  mountains, 
there  is  fine  ground  for  fox-hunting.  From  the  abundance 
of  the  red  fox,  he  can  be  started  at  any  time  by  hounds, 
and  from  his  well-known  habit  of  "circling"  (as  the  hunters 
style  the  movement)  about  his  native  den  or  thicket,  and 
running  for  a  great  length  of  time  in  circumscribed  spaces, 


298  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

the  richest  and  rarest  sport  may  be  enjoyed  by  those  who 
love  the  excitement  of  that  regal  indulgence,  the  fox-hunt. 

The  hunt  being  a  "  note  in  the  gamut  of  ambition,"  and  in- 
volving the  extreme  physical  tension  and  culminating  forces 
of  four  of  the  most  wonderful  animals  of  the  earth, — the 
man,  the  horse,  the  dog,  and  his  brother  the  fox, — has  ever 
been  the  grand  recreation  of  monarchs  and  princely  men, 
and  its  achievements  recorded  as  the  true  and  only  absolute 
criterion  of  the  actual  power  of  each.  In  this  aspect,  the 
"fox-hunt"  ceases  to  be  a  vulgar  and  noisy  nuisance,  (as 
supposed  by  the  ignorant  and  uninitiated !)  engaging  the 
lowest  form  of  man  and  animal,  and  becomes  a  great 
dynamic  revelation,  involving  the  spiritual  and  physical 
capabilities  of  four  of  the  highest  organisms  of  the  world. 

Dull  must  be  the  ear  to  which  the  voice  of  the  hound  in 
the  freshness  of  the  morning,  with  all  nature  flashing  in  the 
brilliancy  of  an  autumn  sunrise,  is  not  music,  and  the 
"  huntsman's  horn,"  the  "  mellow,  mellow  horn,"  has  nothing 
of  that  harmony  which  is  the  spirit  and  joy  of  life,  existing 
in  man  as  well  as  every  object  that  surrounds  him,  and  in 
another  form  "  glitters  in  the  wave,  the  rainbow,  the  light- 
ning, and  the  star."  The  red  fox's  range,  Atlantic  States 
to  Missouri,  Pennsylvania  to  Canada  and  south. 

YULPES  Yirginianus,  (Rich.)  gray  fox. — This  species  does 
not  abound,  although  it  is  found  on  the  mountain.  It  is 
alleged  by  hunters  that  the  gray  and  red  fox  will  not  inhabit 
the  same  woods,  from  some  ancient  spirit  of  antagonism. 
The  probable  cause  is,  that  the  gray  fox,  possessing  neither 
the  swiftness,  wind,  or  lung,  (foot  and  bottom,  as  the  sports- 
men say !)  nor  the  sharpness,  cunning,  and  intellect  of  the 
red  fox,  leaves  the  field  from  a  sense  of  inequality  in  compe- 
tition for  game,  notwithstanding  De  Kay's  assertion  that  "  it 
is  bolder  and  more  astute  than  the  red  fox." 

The  light,  swift,  well-trained  fox-hound  will  capture  the 
gray  fox  often  in  an  hour  or  two,  while  eight,  twelve,  or 
twenty-four  agonizing  hours  of  effort  on  the  part  of  the  best 
pack  is  required  to  fairly  beat  the  red  fox,  ungorged  and  in 


MINKS — OTTER — SKUNK.  299 

good  condition,  the  surface  being  equally  propitious  to  both 
dog  and  fox.  Range  of  the  gray  fox,  "  Pennsylvania  to 
the  Southern  States  and  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific." 


MINK,  WEASEL. 

(Family  Mustelidse.) 

Genus  PUTORIUS,  (Cuvier.)  Species  Vison,  (Syn.  Mus- 
tela  Yison,  Linn.) — The  brown  mink  is  a  mischievous  little 
animal,  and  quite  abundant  on  the  Alleghany.  He  is  a  fatal 
visitant  of  the  hen-roost ;  but  is  much  esteemed  for  his  fur. 

PUTORIUS  Noveboracensis.  Common  weasel,  white  weasel, 
(Syn.  Mustela  erminea,  Harlan.) — Is  occasionally  seen  on 
the  Alleghany ;  range,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Illinois  to 
Arkansas. 

OTTER. 

(Family  LutridaB.) 

Genus  LUTRA.  Species  Canadensis,  common  otter  of 
Pennant,  and  Lutra  Braziliensis  of  Harlan.  The  American 
otter  has  a  range  of  North  United  States  west  to  Rocky 
Mountains,  or  "  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  and  from 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  shores  of  the  Arctic  Sea." — D.  K. 
This  sagacious  and  wary  animal  is  occasionally  found  on  the 
mountain,  but  is  rare  in  Pennsylvania,  and  fast  disappearing, 
on  account  of  its  valuable  fur.  From  the  shyness  of  its 
habits  it  is  difficult  to  take ;  sometimes,  however,  it  is  cap- 
tured when  its  foot-prints  are  discovered  in  the  sands  of  the 
mountain  streams.  It  feeds  upon  fish  and  aquatic  animals. 


SKUNK. 

MEPHITIS  Mephitica,  skunk,  pole-cat. — This  detestable 
creature  is  found  on  the  mountain,  but  not  abundant ;  and 
being  an  offensive  and  ignominious  thief,  the  less  said  about 
(in  hearing  of  "ears  polite" !)  or  done  with  him,  the  better. 
De  Kay  records  the  fact,  that  Dr.  Wiley,  of  Black  Island, 


300  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

"sraelled  him  twenty  miles  at  sea."  He  also  seems  to  regard 
him  with  considerable  complacency,  observing,  "the  flesh, 
when  carefully  prepared,  is  very  sweet.  A  person  in  my 
neighborhood  took  nineteen  from  one  burrow,  and  salted 
them  down  for  family  use  during  the  winter."*  The  Alle- 
ghaniens  in  Pennsylvania  do  not  seem  to  regard  the  pole- 
cat as  a  very  great  dainty;  at  least  it  is  not  found  on  the 
bills  of  fare  of  the  hotels  of  that  range.  The  skunk  is 
generally  regarded  as  the  essence  of  all  that  is  disgusting 
and  abominable  in  nature,  f 

The  pole-cat  is  found  all  over  the  United  States  east  of 
Missouri  Plains  and  north  of  Texas. 


RACCOON. 

(Family  Ursidae.) 

PKOCYON  lotor,  (Storr.)  or  common  raccoon. — This  animal 
is  found  throughout  the  Apalachian  range,  in  Pennsylvania. 
It  abounds  on  the  Alleghany,  frequenting  water  courses  and 
springs,  hunting  frogs,  lizards,  and  fresh  water  shells.  It  is 
peculiar  and  interesting^  in  its  habits,  and  seems  to  have 
friendly  feelings  for  man,  enjoying  much  a  visit  to  his  grow- 
ing corn-fields,  and  being  easily  domesticated.  Its  flesh  is 
esteemed  a  delicacy  as  an  article  of  food  in  the  wilder  and 
more  primitive  regions,  but  like  many  other  delicacies  it  re- 
quires a  certain  drill  and  conspiracy  of  circumstances  to 
develop  an  appreciation  of  its  qualities.  Like  the  god 
Pan,  the  huntsman  has  a  taste  for  the  flesh  of  the  woods, 

*  New  York  Fauna,  p.  30. 

f  In  the  spiritual  world  there  are  men  who  assume  the  form  of 
the  skunk.  These  men  on  earth  were  skunkish  men,  that  is,  the 
loves  or  active  principles  within  them  were  developed  in  the 
skunkish  sphere,  or  in  acts  the  odor  of  which  for  intensity  of  mean- 
ness, gave  disgust  forever  to  all  manly  men.  "All  that  is  deformed 
and  foul  in  nature  is  already  in  the  hells  whose  loves  it  effigies,  and 
whose  outward  kingdom  it  is." 

%  See  note  at  end  of  catalogue  of  "Mammals." 


BEAR — OPOSSUM.  301 

and  the  vigor  of  digestion  which  comes  from  life  in  the 
forest,  gives  a  sublime  zest  to  anything,  and  thus  the 
"coon,"  finely  frosted  and  roasted,  might,  under  certain  cir- 
cumstances, for  a  moment  abolish  the  nausea  which  comes 
with  the  thought  (which  it  certainly  inspires)  of  eating  an 
animal  so  nearly  human  as  the  dog.  *  The  coon  night-hunt 
is  among  the  established  sports  of  the  woods.  Geographic 
range,  from  Massachusetts  to  Florida  and  west  to  Fort 
Kearny. 

BLACK  BEAR. 

Of  the  UrsideB  there  is  another  representative,  the  Ursus 
Americanus,  or  black  bear.  This  bear  is  frequently  found 
in  numbers  on  the  Alleghanies,  and  in  some  portions  of  the 
more  savage  part  of  the  range  the  species  breeds.  They 
sometimes  migrate  from  one  part  of  the  mountain  to  an- 
other, directed  in  their  journeyings  by  the  instinct  of  self- 
preservation  on  the  subject  of  food.  The  sport  of  taking 
this  animal  is  greatly  enjoyed  by  the  huntsman,  the  danger 
of  capture  giving  zest  to  the  chase.  The  flesh  is  esteemed 
a  great  dainty  by  many  persons,  but  its  coarse  fibre,  bathed 
in  grease  of  a  peculiar  flavor,  must  perpetually  exclude  it 
from  the  list  of  genuine  luxuries,  f  The  bear  hybernates, 
passing  three  or  four  months  in  a  state  of  torpidity  ;  range, 
United  States  generally. 

OPOSSUM. 

ORDER  MARSTJPIATA,  (Family  Didelphidse. ) 
DIDELPHYS,  (Linn.,)  Yirginiana,  opossum. — This  is  a  com- 
mon wild  animal  of  Pennsylvania,  and  is  found  on  the  Alle- 
ghanies.    Its  habits   are  well  known,   and  some  of  them 
peculiar.     It  is  sometimes  eaten,  and  considered  a  delicacy ; 

*  "  The  coon's  flesh,  when  young,  is  savory,  not  unlike  pig,  but  in 
adults  it  is  rank  and  disagreeable." — De  Kay. 

f  "  The  flesh  of  the  bear  is  savory,  but  rather  luscious,  and  tastes 
not  unlike  pork," — De  Kay. 

26 


302  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

abounding  in  grease,  it  is  said  by  its  lovers  to  possess  a 
flavor  strongly  resembling  a  mixture  of  pig  and  rat,  and  is 
consequently  one  of  the  rarest  combinations  of  sapors  in- 
dulged in  by  omnivorous  man.  It  is  the  only  marsupial  on 
the  continent,  and  has  a  range  from  Southern  United  States 
to  Hudson's  River. 


SQUIRREL. 

ORDER  RODENTIA,  (Family  Sciurida3.) 

SCIURTJS,  species  Cinereus,  (Linn.)  —  This  is  the  large 
squirrel,  called  fox  squirrel.  It  is  not  abundant,  but  some- 
times taken  on  the  mountain. 

SCIURUS,  (Gmelin.)  Species  Carolinensis,  (Grodman.) — 
This  is  the  common  gray  and  black  squirrel.  Possess- 
ing a  geographic  range  of  the  whole  United  States  to  the 
Missouri  River,  it  is  of  course  on  the  mountain.  This 
squirrel  is  very  abundant  during  seasons  when  the  mast  of 
the  mountain  abounds.  This  abundance  is  sometimes  in- 
creased to  an  enormous  extent  by  immigration  of  large 
swarms  from  the  districts  where  the  supply  of  food  has 
failed.  It  is  a  beautiful  and  interesting  species. 

SCIURUS  Hudsonius,  (Pallas,)  is  the  Chickaree  Pine,  or  red 
squirrel  of  the  woods.  It  has  a  range  from  Labrador  (lat.  65) 
to  Mississippi.  This  lively  and  noisy  little  squirrel  has  also 
quite  a  range  of  instincts  and  affinities.  He  lives  in  barns, 
deserted  houses,  and  hollow  trees,  and  is  also  found  in  the 
deepest  and  darkest  forests,  and  in  the  most  lonely  and  un- 
frequented places.  He  is  familiar  and  almost  impertinent, 
allowing  a  near  approach,  and  assuming,  with  quick  and 
jerking  movements  of  body,  all  styles  of  fantastic  atti- 
tudes— sometimes  sitting  upright,  with  his  tail  over  his 
back,  in  the  crook  of  a  pine  limb,  or  hanging,  head  down- 
ward, by  his  hind  claws  ;  again  twirling  spirally  around  the 
tree,  or  plunging  fearlessly  among  its  topmost  boughs. 


GROUND-HOG.  303 

During  all  this  time  there  is  kept  up  a  perpetual  chatter, 
and  saucy  querulous  complaint.  This  characteristic  bark 
and.  rattle  (a  noise  like  the  sound  produced  by  a  boy's  small 
watchman's  rattle)  may  be  heard  almost  at  any  time  during 
the  daylight  in  the  woods.  He  is  a  hardy,  tireless,  and  self- 
sufficient  little  animal,  full  of  fun,  and,  like  all  industrious 
busy  persons,  happy.  He  flashes  about  at  all  seasons,  from 
midsummer  to  dead  winter,  leaving  no  nut  untasted  and  no 
snow  untracked.  He  has  no  disposition  to  hybernate,  like 
the  little  striped  squirrel  of  the  ground,  or  even  stay  within 
doors,  like  the  gray  squirrel,  in  inclement  weather.  He  is  a 
special  favorite  of  the  woodsman,  and  his  form  and  voice 
suggest  perpetually  pine  groves  and  the  beauties  of  the 
wilderness. 

PTEROMYS,  (Cuv.)  Sciurus  Yolucella,  (Gmelin.)  Ptero- 
mys  Yolucella,  or  flying  squirrel. — This  curious  little  animal 
is  found  here.  It  has  a  range  of  the  United  States  to  the 
Mississippi  River.  It  is  not  abundant,  is  shy,  and  found  only 
in  solitary  places. 

TAMIAS,  (Illiger.)  Sciurus  Striatus,  (Linn.)  Tamias 
striatus  is  the  Chip  Munk,  or  ground  squirrel.  This  familiar 
little  creature  is  found  every  place  from  Canada  to  Virginia 
and  the  Missouri  River.  Being  earthy  in  his  habits,  and 
held  by  terrestrial  affinities,  like  other  proper  earth  animals, 
he  hybernates,  taking  leave  of  absence  during  the  deep  win- 
ter months.  He  is  a  great  favorite  with  children  who  fre- 
quent the  woods  and  fields,  his  striped  coat  and  lively 
motions  being  much  admired. 


GROUND-HOG. 

ARCTOMYS,  (Schreber.)  Mus-monax,  (Linn.)  Arctomys 
monax,  woodchuck,  or  ground-hog.  Abundant ;  range, 
Canada  to  Virginia  and  from  Massachusetts  to  Wisconsin. 
He  becomes  very  fat,  is  eaten,  and  said  to  be  good,  but  sug- 
gests pup  or  cat  to  the  imagination. 


304  THE   MOUNTAIN. 


BEAYER. 

CASTOR  Fiber,  (Linn.)  Castor  Canadensis,  (Kuhl,)  or 
American  beaver. — This  animal  is  said  still  to  be  found  in 
the  wildest  parts  of  the  Alleghany  in  Pennsylvania.  His 
history,  habits,  and  the  wisdom  of  his  instincts  are  well 
known.  He  is  fast  disappearing.  Original  range,  the  con- 
tinent of  North  America. 

JACULUS. 

JACULUS,  (Wagler.)  Jaculus  Hudsonius,  or  jumping 
mouse. — This  strange  little  animal  is  found  from  Nova 
Scotia,  Labrador,  to  Southern  Pennsylvania,  and  west  to 
Pacific  Ocean. 

MOUSE,  RAT. 

Mus  Musculus,  common  mouse.  Range,  every  place  on 
the  continent.  Introduced. 

Mus  Decumanus,  (Pallas,)  or  brown  rat,  has  a  continental 
range.  It  is  an  introduced  species. 

Mus  Rattus,  or  black  rat,  is  found  every  place.  Intro- 
duced. 

Arvicola  Hirsutus  and  Arvicola  Pennsylvanica  have  a 
Middle  State  range. 

"Hesperomys  Leucopus,  (Wagner,)  white-footed  mouse. 
Range,  Nova  Scotia  and  (Labrador)  to  Yirginia,  and  west 
to  the  Mississippi  River. " — Baird. 

"Hesperomys  Nuttalia,  red  mouse.  Range,  Southern 
Pennsylvania  to  Georgia,  and  west  to  St.  Louis." — Idem. 

MUSK-RAT. 

FIBER,  (Cuv.)  Fiber  Zibethicus,  musk-rat. — This  rat 
has  a  continental  range,  and  is  said  to  increase  in  numbers 
as  the  country  is  improved,  which  is  unlike  the  other  fur 
tribes,  which  decrease  with  the  advancement  of  man.  It 
abounds. 


PORCUPINE — RABBIT — ELK.  305 

PORCUPINE. 

(Family  Hystricidee.) 

ERETHIZON,  (Cuv.)  Erethizon  dorsatus,  Hystrix  Hud- 
sonius,  Brisson,  white-haired  porcupine. —  This  animal  is 
found  on  the  Alleghany.  Its  range  is  said,  by  Baird  and 
Girard,  to  be  Eastern  United  States  to  Mississippi  River, 
and  North  Pennsylvania  to  Canada,  (and  67°  Rich.) 


RABBIT. 

(Family  Leporidae.) 

LEPUS,  (Linn.)  Lepus  Americanus,  northern  hare,  or 
white  rabbit,  is  said  to  range  from  Virginia  to  Labrador. 
It  is  found  in  the  forests,  laurel  and  rhododendron  thickets, 
of  the  Alleghany  in  Pennsylvania.  It  is  very  shy,  and 
rarely  seen,  from  its  vigilant  habits  and  inaccessible  retreats, 
although  quite  numerous  in  some  places.  Hunted  with 
hounds  it  affords  a  rare  and  exciting  sport,  eluding  the 
dogs  like  a  "will-o'-the-wisp,"  and  requiring  sometimes 
hours  to  capture  him. 

LEPUS  Sylvaticus,  (Bach.)  The  gray,  or  common  rabbit, 
is  found  abundantly  through  all  the  States  from  Massa- 
chusetts to  Texas  and  west  to  Missouri  River.  It  abounds 
in  numbers  on  the  mountain  where  the  red  fox  has  been 
partially  banished  or  exterminated. 

ELK. 

ORDER  RUMINANTIA,  (Family  CervidaB.) 

CERVUS,  (Linn.)  Cervus  Canadensis,  American  elk. — 
The  elk  still  lingers  in  the  wildest  recesses  and  fastnesses  of 
Pennsylvania  Alleghanies.  Once  abundant  on  this  range, 
western  table -lands,  and  valleys,  it  is  now  found  only  in  the 
most  inaccessible  places.  Occasionally  perfect  specimens  are 
taken,  but  this  splendid  animal,  one  of  the  noblest  of  Ameri- 

26* 


306  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

can  mammals,  is  destined  soon  to  disappear  before  advancing 
civilization,  like  the  human  representative  or  indigenous  man 
of  the  continent.  The  huntsman  may  still  hope,  as  he  treads 
the  mountain  forests,  to  be  startled  by  the  presence  of  this 
superb  king  of  stags.  The  range  of  the  American  elk  is 
Northern  United  States  to  Upper  Missouri,  and  west  to  the 
Pacific  ;  said  also  to  extend  to  51°, north  latitude,  according 
to  Richardson. 

DEER. 

CERVUS  Yirginianus,  Virginia,  or  common  deer. — This 
animal  is  still  abundant  on  the  Alleghanies,  and  said  to  have 
a  range  of  the  United  States  generally  east  of  Missouri  and 
north  to  Maine.  Quantities  of  the  flesh  of  the  deer  (veni- 
son) are  sent  from  the  Alleghanies  to  the  cities  of  the 
State  both  east  and  west. 

OX. 

(Family  Bovidae.) 

Bos,  Bison,  (Linn.) — This  native  species  has  long  disap- 
peared from  the  eastern  side  of  the  continent. 

Bos,  Taurus,  introduced. — The  common  ox  has  many 
varieties,  some  of  which  are  the  most  useful  and  interesting 
animals.  The  species  is  susceptible  of  extensive  modifica- 
tion by  careful  cultivation ;  and,  as  the  constant  friend  of  man, 
now  almost  necessary  to  his  existence,  this  attention  and 
cultivation  seem  a  sure  evidence  of  his  progress.  Whe- 
ther patiently  bearing  the  yoke,*  a  helper  in  the  field,  as  in 

*  Although  apparently  the  simplest  and  easiest  of  all  operations, 
the  driving  and  management  of  oxen  perfectly  is  one  of  the  most 
critical  and  triumphant  of  human  achievements.  They  seem  to 
think  on  the  mountain,  and  they  are  right,  that  the  real  subduer  of 
the  ox  must  possess  a  special  genius,  or  original  influx  of  force  in  that 
direction.  As  no  man,  even  with  any  amount  or  sum-total  of  ordi- 
nary human  faculties,  can  be  a  poet,  a  painter,  an  orator,  or  a  fisher- 
man, so  certainly  cannot  any  commonly  endowed  mortal  become  a 
driver  of  oxen.  A  special  dodge  of  Fate  is  required  to  produce  these 


ox.  307 

the  work  ox,  sacrificing  his  life  for  food  and  luxury,  as  in  the 
fatted  beef,  or  yielding  daily  tribute  from  the  secretions  of  the 
blood  in  the  shape  of  milk  and  cream,  in  the  gentle,  benefi- 
cent, and  motherly  cow,  this  great  ruminant  would  appear 

results.     A  genius,  a  rage,  a  transcendent  specialty  of  force  in  one 
sphere,  is  absolutely  necessary.     The  thing  must  be  born  in  a  man. 
And  then,  is  it  not  strange  to  reflect  how  rarely  the  great  power  is 
revealed,  and  how  long  the  heavenly  gift  may  remain  without  being 
discovered,  even  by  the  possessor  himself?     It  would  seem  that  the 
genius  of  occasion  is  also  required  to  rouse  the  soul  to  recognition  of 
itself.     Poets  have  heard  the  echoes  of  the  magic  lyre,  and  been  in- 
spired even  in  old  age  to  sing  immortal  songs  ;  painters  have  caught 
the  enchanting  sheen,  blind  to  its  power  through  life,  and  touched 
the  canvas  with  undying   beauty ;    and  orators,  whose   youth  had 
passed  in  silence,  have  startled  a  listening  world  with  their  elo- 
quence.    So  on  the  banks  of  the  Kiskimineas,  a  foreordained  fisher- 
man, who  had  never  baited  a  hook  or  felt  the  nibble  of  a  chub  in  all 
his  life,  was  startled,  at  the  age  of  eighty,  into  the  discovery  that  he 
was  a  natural-born  Waltonian  priest,  anointed  from  the  beginning  of 
all  things,  and  with  religious  awe  assumed  the  solemn  functions  of 
his  calling,  but  died  with  the  raptures  of  catching  pike  within  sixty 
days  of  his  ordination.     Thus,  also,  was  it  that  an  ancient  physician 
of  the  Alleghany  Mountain,  at  an  advanced  age,  accidentally  dis- 
covered that  his  person  was  the  residence  of  a  beautiful  but  terrible 
demon,  that  he  was  in  fact  a  poetically  inspired,  an  enthusiastically 
inebriated  ox  driver.     This  strange  passion,  this  wonderful  power 
in  a  particular  drift,  had  remained  hidden  deep  down  in  the  un- 
developed elements  of  his   consciousness  for  long  years,  when   a 
bright  casualty  revealed  the  faculty  divine,  and  astonished  himself 
and  the  world.    Necessity,  (maternal  authoress  of  many  things!)  on 
an  occasion,  directed  his  attention  to  the  subjugation  (under-the- 
yoking)  of  two  tremendous  bulls.     That  accomplished,  two  others 
were  added,  and  yet  two  others,  until,  grandly  culminating,  a  team  of 
eight  horned  monsters,  dragging  enormous  logs,  were  guided  with 
dexterity  and  ease  through  the  labyrinths  of  an  intricate  forest. 
Thus,  apparently  accidental,  his  illumination  came,  and  he  discovered 
that  an  imperfectly  developed  country  doctor,  (who  had  committed 
violence  against  his  organization  bybeating  the  bars  of  his  limita- 
tions in  false  directions,  through  a  subversive  torture,  called  regular 
education,}  had  been  forced  out  of  the  mournful  ruin  of  perverted 
elements  of  an  original  primordial  king,  whose  indefeasible  sceptre 
was  the  ox  gad. 


308  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

to  be  one  of  "Heaven's  best  gifts  to  man."  The  mountain, 
with  its  good  grass-growing  surfaces,  might  produce  the  best 
varieties  of  cattle,  but  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  not  much  at- 
tention has  been  given  to  raising  the  finer  stocks.  This 
will  apply  to  all  the  State,  and  it  would  certainly  be  of 
great  advantage  to  the  ambitious  Pennsylvania  agriculturist 
who  imagines  we  are  at  the  top  of  the  ladder  in  all  things, 
to  visit,  for  instance,  an  annual  fair  of  our  sister  State  of 
Ohio.  The  common  varieties  alone  are  found  on  the  moun- 
tain, which,  however,  sometimes  produce  milk-cows  of  ex- 
traordinary qualities. 

SHEEP. 

(Family  Capridae.) 

Genus  Ovis,  (Linn.)  Species  Aries,  common  sheep. — 
Few  or  none  of  the  highly  improved  varieties  of  sheep  are 
raised  on  the  mountain.  It  is  more  favorable  than  any 
other  part  of  the  State  to  the  growth  of  this  domestic  ani- 
mal, as  has  been  stated  in  the  chapter  on  soil  and  grasses. 
This  is  undoubtedly  true  with  regard  to  both  flesh  and  fleece. 
The  common  sheep  is  the  only  variety  to  which  any  attention 
has  been  given.  It  multiplies  rapidly,  and  produces,  as 
already  remarked,  a  superior  quality  of  mutton.  A  cross  of 
the  Southdown  and  common  sheep  is  said,  by  an  experi- 
enced shepherd,*  to  be  the  best  animal  to  grow,  both  for 
wool  and  mutton,  as  it  retains  the  hardiness  of  one,  (the 
common,)  and  imparts  the  more  delicately  flavored  fat  and 
flesh-fibre  of  the  other,  (Southdown,)  together  with  its  finer 

*  This  allusion  is  to  the  renowned  man-feeder,  Robert  Harmer,  of 
Philadelphia.  Mr.  H.  was  formally  an  English  shepherd,  possessing 
great  practical  knowledge  of  the  sheep,  and  much  wisdom  in  the  de- 
tails of  breeding  and  management  of  that  animal,  Of  the  qualities 
of  mutton  there  is  not  extant  a  better  judge  than  Mr.  H.,  as  indeed 
of  all  other  material  used  in  the  sublime  art  of  cooking  and  feeding, 
(his  new  vocation,)  since  he  left  behind  his  dog  and  crook,  and  ceased 
"to  watch  his  flocks  by  night,  all  seated  on  the  ground." 


HOG — JACKA.SS — HORSE.  309 

fleece.  With  some  enterprise  and  attention,  the  mountain 
may  become  the  mutton-growing  region  of  the  State.  Will 
the  mountaineers  look  at  this  subject  a  little  ? 

HOG. 

PACHYDERMATA,  (Family  SuidaB.) 

Genus  Sus.  Species  Scrofa,  variety  Domestica. — Many 
varieties  of  the  common  hog  exist,  the  most  detestable  of 
which  is,  perhaps,  the  mountain  wood-hog.  It  is  composed 
principally  of  bristles,  gristles,  legs,  and  snout,*  producing 
indestructible  pork,  which  is  also  destitute  of  lard.  The 
form  of  the  animal  is  that  of  a  fish,  with  long  legs,  consti- 
tuting the  true  land-pike,  to  which  no  fence  is  impenetrable. 
A  cross  with  the  Berkshire  and  China  modify  the  creature 
to  a  certain  extent  in  his  leading  attributes,  furnishing  a 
pork  that  may  be  partially  masticated  by  first-class  natural 
grinders.  This  animal  is  undoubtedly  a  return  (illustration 
of  the  fatal  and  eternal  un  alter  ability  of  type)  to  the  ori- 
ginal wild  boar,  Sus  Scrofa. 

JACKASS. 

(Family  Equidse.) 

Genus  EQUUS,  (Linn.)  Species  Asinus,  Jackass. — This 
is  a  native  of  the  East,  a  hardy  and  useful  animal,  valuable 
for  more  purposes  than  the  degradation  of  the  horse  by  the 
production  of  monsters  in  the  shape  of  mules.  It  thrives 
well  on  the  mountain. 

HORSE. 

EQUUS  Caballus,  the  horse. — The  present  horse  cultivated 
on  the  continent,  as  is  well  known,  is  not  indigenous.  It 
was  long  supposed  that  there  was  no  American  horse,  and 

*  This  is  a  close  connection  of  the  Crawford  County  hog,  a  slab- 
sided  brute,  flat  as  a  shingle,  with  large  predominance  of  the  above 
materials,  particularly  bristles  and  jaws,  with  the  addition  of  an  ex- 
cessively long,  straight,  characteristic  tail.  This  is  the  variety  well 
known  to  everybody  as  the  hog  which  is  prevented  passing  through 
fences  by  tying  knots  on  his  tail. 


310  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

never  had  been.  There  is  no  living  native  horse  in  America, 
the  wild  horse  of  the  Southwest  being  the  introduced 
European  or  Asiatic  horse,  which  has  run  wild.  Recent 
discoveries  of  Professor  Leidy,  through  explorations  of 
Messrs.  Hayden  and  Holmes  in  the  South  and  West, 
have  brought  to  light  a  number  of  fossil  horses  belonging 
to  the  continent.  They  amount  to  five  genera  and  seven 
species,  cotemporary  with  the  mastodon.  When  it  is  re- 
membered that  all  the  different  shaped  horses  which  we 
see,  from  the  Shetland  pony,  weighing  three  hundred 
pounds,  to  the  massive  Conestoga  wagon-horse  of  a  ton 
weight,  and  from  the  greyhound-shaped  turf-horse,  fleet  as 
the  wind,  to  the  clumsy  cob  or  lunk-head  with  globular  car- 
cass, slow  and  unwieldy  as  a  fatted  hog,  are  all  varieties  of 
one  species,  E.  caballus,  the  announcement  will  strike  with 
surprise  that  there  have  been  five  different  genera,  and  seven 
species  of  American  horses.  Many  of  them  have  been  very 
peculiar  animals,  possessing  interesting  characters.  For 
an  account  of  fossil  horses  of  America,  see  "  Contributions 
to  the  Paleontology  of  North  America,"  published  through 
the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia,  by  the 
distinguished  comparative  anatomist,  Joseph  Leidy. 

But  few  of  the  varieties,  strains,  or  bloods  of  horses,  have 
received  any  attention  in  the  mountain  districts  of  the  State. 
This  is  to  be  deplored,  as  the  commonest  kinds  of  horses 
grown  there  have  discovered  remarkable  qualities  of  action, 
speed,  and  endurance.  This  indifference,  it  must  be  ac- 
knowledged, however,  characterizes  the  whole  State  of  Penn- 
sylvania. Some  of  the  Southern  and  Southwestern  States 
have  shown  a  laudable  zeal  in  this  department,  and  have 
produced  horses  possessing  as  noble  qualities  of  the  animal, 
in  all  vital  and  artistic  points,  as  have  been  bred  upon 
earth. 

Pennsylvania  has  never  distinguished  herself  in  this  line, 
with  the  exception,  perhaps,  of  having  grown  good  draught- 
horses,  and  some  fine  trotters.  Eminently  utilitarian  and 
common  sense,  the  exclusive  turf-horse  has  had  but  few 


HORSE.  311 

patrons  in  that  State,  and  the  desperate  fanciers  of  horses 
of  special  powers  have  not  been  numerous.  Still  the  State 
can  boast  of  many  intelligent  and  spirited  horsemen,  not 
only  as  growers,  breakers,  and  dealers,  but  men  to  whom 
the  science  of  the  horse,  his  varieties  and  functions,  is  a 
precious  domain  of  knowledge. 

The  general  apathy  and  indifference  to,  and  profound  igno- 
rance of,  this  noble  animal, — from  the  blacksmith  who  carelessly 
nails  a  rim  of  iron  around  his  wonderfully  organized  hoof,* 
crippling  and  deforming  one  of  the  most  interesting  vital 
mechanisms  in  the  whole  animal  kingdom,  to  the  quack  farrier 
calling  himself  "veterinary  surgeon,"  who  maltreats  and  de- 
stroys him,  having  but  one  name  (bots)  for  all  his  compli- 
cated catalogue  of  diseases  ;  or  from  the  fool  who  drives  him 
to  death  for  want  of  knowledge  of  his  capacity  to  destroy 
space  and  carry  loads,  to  the  Cockney  who  prostitutes  his 
powers  to  uses  never  designed  by  Nature,  and  who  murdersf 
him  to  gratify  his  pride  or  gambling  lust, — is  a  subject  of  sur- 
prise, and  constitutes  the  lowest  blunder  and  inappetency  of 
the  man  and  the  hour.  Let  him  reflect  with  earnestness  and 
intelligence  on  the  horse  and  his  human  associations,  his 
significance  and  true  meaning,  his  laws  and  his  destiny,  and 
he  will  no  longer  stand  confused  for  his  ignorance  of,  or  con- 
demned for  his  crimes  against  him. 

To  this  splendid  creature's  majestic  form,  Nature  seems 
to  have  affixed  the  high  and  distinguished  marks  of  the  per- 
fection of  organic  structures.  Alone,  in  the  style  and  gran- 
deur of  his  proportions,  he  stands  the  incarnation  of  the 

*  See  note  at  end  of  catalogue  of  "Mammals." 

f  "  The  Mongolic  nations  eat  horse-flesh.  Wild  horse  meat, 
butchered  for  the  market,  is  still  sold  daily  in  many  parts  of  China." 
Hamilton  Smith. 

Which  is  the  most  rational  savage,  Cockney  or  Mongole  ?  Mon- 
gole  certainly,  for  he  would  give,  no  doubt,  the  excuse  of  the  canni- 
bal for  eating  his  grandmother,  "she  was  very  good.'"  But  the 
Cockney !  what  has  he  to  say  why  sentence  of  death  shall  not  be 
pronounced  upon  him?  Nothing;  the  verdict  stands:  "murder  in 
the  first  degree." 


312  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

marriage  of  the  soul  of  the  dumb-brute  forces  of  the  uni- 
verse, with  the  shining  and  ethereal  elements  of  grace  and 
beauty.  Almost  human  in  his  capacity  of  thought  or  do- 
cility and  affection,  his  long-established  companionship  with 
man  is  no  accident.  The  primitive  huntsman,*  with  his  bow 
and  arrow,  living  by  the  spoils  of  the  chase,  or  the  wandering 
herdsman  and  shepherd,  existing  from  the  proceeds  of  their 
flocks,  were  feeble,  impotent.  The  infant  man  developing  the 
first  phasis  of  his  earthly  career,  seemed,  by  the  limitations 
of  his  force  as  an  animal,  to  be  doomed  to  a  state  of  per- 
petual childhood.  When  the  happy  idea  arrived  of  sub- 
duing the  horse  to  his  uses,  he  had  with  that  thought  the 
key  to  an  incomputable  power. f  The  command  "advance  1" 
was  given,  and  the  word  Progress  came  into  existence,  and 
had  significance.  In  this  arm  of  strength  he  realized  the 
meaning  of  the  fable  of  the  Centaur  :{  his  power  to  subdue 

*  "With  regard  to  mental  qualifications,  the  nations  of  North 
America  not  having  passed  beyond  the  state  of  hunters,  show,  for 
want  of  the  laboring  ox  and  conquering  horse,  the  characteristics  of 
others  in  the  same  condition." — Hamilton  Smith. 

•j-  "It  appears  that  the  present  Mongolia  tribes  were  long  igno- 
rant of  the  real  use  of  the  horse ;  while,  in  the  Arctic  regions,  the 
white  wooly  race  of  the  Jakoutsk  was  not  deemed  serviceable  except 
for  food. 

"From  the  subaltaic  Yuchi,  who  were  the  first  rulers,  they  no 
doubt  learned  the  art,  and  became  conquerors,  by  the  sole  acquisi- 
tion which  changes  the  relations  of  every  people  on  earth  accessible 
to  this  animal." — Natural  History  of  the  Human  Species,  by  Colonel 
Hamilton  Smith. 

%  "Cheiron  was  the  wisest  and  justest  of  the  Centaurs."  (Horn. 
II.,  xi.  831.)  "He  was  the  instructor  of  Achilles,  and  had  himself 
been  instructed  by  Apollo  and  Artemis,  and  was  renowned  for  his 
skill  in  hunting,  medicine,  music,  gymnastics,  and  the  art  of  pro- 
phecy." (Xen.  Cyneg. !  !)  "Cheiron  is  the  noblest  specimen  of  a 
combination  of  the  human  and  animal  forms  in  the  ancient  works  of 
art ;  for,  while  the  Centaurs  generally  express  the  sensual  and  savage 
features  of  a  man  combined  with  the  strength  and  swiftness  of  a 
horse,  Cheiron,  who  possesses  the  latter  likewise,  combines  with  it  a 
mild  wisdom.  He  was  represented  on  the  Amyclsean  throne  of 


HORSB.  313 

nature  was  multiplied  by  a  miraculous  implement,  and  the 
irresistible  mythical  monster,  half  horse  half  man,  became 
the  symbol  of  a  disenthralled  and  advancing  humanity.* 

The  domesticated  and  educated  horse,  then,  appears  a 
standard  achievement,  his  body  a  perfect  concentration  of 
the  powers  of  the  earth.  Gentle,  docile,  and  humble  as  a 
slave,  his  muscles  have  made  the  desert  to  blossom  ;  and  the 
plow  stands  an  everlasting  record  of  man's  escape  from  the 
horrors  of  barbarism,  and  his  passage  into  the  enjoyment  of 
the  blessings  of  civilization. 

"As  in  the  art  of  poetry  all  arts  have  been  blended,  so  in 
the  art  of  war  have  all  sciences  and  arts.  The  art  of  war 
is  the  highest  and  most  exalted  art ;  the  art  of  freedom  and 
right,  of  the  blessed  condition  of  man  and  of  humanity, — 
the  Principle  of  Peace." 

In  this  art  of  arts,  in  the  grand  achievements  of  this 
"Principle  of  Peace,"  the  horse  has  been  a  primary  instru- 
ment, f  Gentle  and  loving  as  a  pet  and  slave,  he  becomes 

Apollo,  and  on  the  chest  of  Cypselus."  (Pausan,  iii.  18.)  "Some 
representations  of  him  are  still  extant,  in  which  young  Achilles,  or 
Erotes,  is  riding  on  his  back."  (Mus.  Pio-Clement,  i.  52.) 

*  Thanks  to  Ixion  and  his  magnesian  mares ;  many  thanks  to  the 
"bull-killers  of  the  mountains  and  forests  of  Thessaly;"  thanks 
eternal  to  the  cloud-begotten  Centaurus,  "  hated  by  gods  and  men," 
for  "  benefactors  shall  be  honored." 

f  The  worst  doom  of  the  horse  is  not  his  slaughter  on  the  battle- 
field. Of  the  abuse  and  maltreatment  of  this  invaluable  domestic, 
too  much  animadversion  cannot  be  expressed ;  from  his  brutal  op- 
pression for  money  in  races  against  time  and  distance,  his  destruc- 
tion from  abuse  in  the  form  of  the  hired  hack,  or  the  still  more 
agonizing  death  by  slow  oozing  of  sweat  (blood)  from  the  jaded  and 
worn-out  body  (rather  tottering  skeleton  ! !)  of  the  treadmill  omnibus 
horse.  The  insane  destruction  of  this  noble  animal  is  the  vilest  form, 
of  lawless  annihilation  of  value,  and  man,  in  his  selfish  perversion 
of  the  use,  and  diabolical  abuse  of  him,  is  indirectly  destroying 
himself. 

"Diomedes,  the  son  of  Ares  and  Gyrene,  was  king  of  the  Bistones 
in  Thrace,  and  was  killed  by  Hercules  on  account  of  his  mares, 
which  he  fed  with  human  flesh."  (Apollod.  ii.  6,  g  8.)  The  ninth 

21 


314  .       THE   MOUNTAIN. 

in  the  battle-field  an  object  of  terror.  United  as  one  with 
man,  he  "descends  to  the  harvest  of  death;"  terrible  is  his 
might,  his  "neck  clothed  with  thunder."  Imparting  to  his 
rider  a  demoniac  force  and  aspect  of  grandeur,  he  too  revels 
in  the  carnage,  as  if  he  had  a  taste  for  blood,  and  fed  upon 
flesh,  instead  of  being  an  innocent  eater  of  herbs,  building  his 
tower  of  strength  from  the  grass  of  the  field.  From  the  roar 
of  the  battle  he  quietly  bows  his  proud  neck  and  becomes  a 
worker  in  the  sod,  and  with  the  plow  reproduces  the  blood 

"great  and  memorable  action"  or  "labor"  of  Hercules  was,  "He 
overcame  Diomedes,  the  most  cruel  tyrant,  of  Thrace,  who  fed  his 
horses  with  the  flesh  of  his  guests.  Hercules  bound  him,  and  threw 
him  to  be  eaten  by  those  horses  to  which  the  tyrant  had  exposed 
others."  A  lesson  of  wisdom  this  to  profane  and  reckless  handlers 
of  the  horse. 

"Is  not  each  fast  young  man, 

With  his  costly  span, 

A  veriest  tyrant  Diomedan? 

Feeding  his  mares  on  human  ham — 

Spilling  dollars  as  fast  he  can, 

And  going  to at  2.20,  slam  ! 

By  the  wrath  of  Hercules  or  the  whisky  ram,  (dram?") 

Beware!  if  thou  art  born  "seized"  of  a  violent  and  wicked  rage 
for  horses,  or  mere  lust  of  pleasure  or  gain  in  the  horse,  or  fraudu- 
lent conquests  through  the  horse,  (glory  of  the  turf!)  thou  art  a 
King  Diomedes,  a  "cruel  tyrant  of  Thrace,"  and  the  revenge  of  the 
strong  Hercules  of  justice  and  compensation  shall  surely  be,  that 
thou  shalt  be  eaten  up  by  thine  own  horses.  (It  is  not  distinctly 
stated  that  Diomedes  ever  swapped  horses,  or  maintained  at  any  one 
time  a  large  number  of  stallions  for  the  benefit  of  the  farmers  of 
Thrace,  but  certainly  both  issues  are  included  in  the  gist  of  this 
Fable.)* 


*  For  the  fate  of  horse-breeders  in  Pennsylvania,  and  the  carelessness  and  in- 
gratitude of  farmers  toward  agricultural  benefactors,  see  Robert  Smith's  work, 
("  Earth  Culture  and  its  Consequences,"  chap,  x.,  "  The  Draught  Horse,"  p.  311,)  for  the 
history  of  the  cost,  profit,  and  loss,  of  his  four  stallions,  "  Governor,"  "  Common 
Sense,"  "  Boanerges,"  and  "  Hellgrimite."  It  appears  from  this  disastrous  experience, 
that  if  the  husbandmen  of  Thrace  allowed  their  horse-loving  king  to  be  devoured  by 
his  own  stud,  the  fanners  of  a  certain  part  of  Pennsylvania  were  equally  cruel,  un- 
grateful, and  wicked  toward  Smith,  in  his  benevolent  efforts  to  improve  their  stock. 


HORSE.  315 

and  life  he  has  assisted  his  infuriated  master  to  destroy. 
Administering  to  all  his  wants,  his  most  coveted  luxury, 
bearing  him  upon  his  imperial  form  in  pursuit  of  pleasure, 
he  is  the  companion  of  princely  gentlemen ;  destroying 
space  on  the  wings  of  the  wind  in  the  ardor  of  the  hunt, 
or,  humble  and  subdued,  he  carries  the  mill  boy  with  the 
widow's  corn  to  be  ground  ;  wise,  good,  and  humanly  work- 
ing, like  a  creature  of  reason  and  thought.  Thus,  from 
the  king  to  the  serf,  he  has  become  an  inseparable  friend 
of  man.  The  romance  of  the  Arab's  love  for  him  seems 
ideal  and  exaggerated,  a  story  of  the  fancy  only ;  but  every 
genial  and  spirited  boy  who  has  wearied  of  his  rocking- 
horse,  and  dreams  of  the  gallant  steed  he  aspires  to  ride, 
knows  it  to  be  true  and  real.  The  perfected  splendor  of  the 
whole  animal  world,  his  place  in  the  system  of  uses  demon- 
strates him  to  be  an  indispensable  element  in  the  progressive 
development*  of  the  races  of  men ;  and  in  his  ancient  alli- 
ance, through  bonds  of  fraternal  love,  with  the  perpetually 
dominant  tribes  and  nations,  he  has  come  at  last  to  be 
endowed,  in  imagination  and  affection,  almost  with  the 
transcendent  faculties  of  a  human  being. 

*  Of  the  horse,  as  a  sanitary  resource,  or  of  horseback  exercise  as 
a  therapeutic  agent,  in  the  cure  of  many  obstinate  forms  of  disease, 
see  chapter  Hygieia.  The  records  of  medicine  show  that  a  number 
of  physicians  have  been  earnest  and  enthusiastic  on  the  subject  of 
exercise  on  horseback  as  a  remedy  for  many  morbid  conditions.  Its 
power  is  undoubtedly  very  great  in  some  conditions,  and  specifically 
assistant  in  many  more. 


316  THE   MOUNTAIN. 


(SEE  ANTE,  p.  811,  at  *) 

The  horse's  foot  is  an  interesting  anatomical  structure.  In  the 
domesticated  state,  this  living,  elastic  mass,  is  used  as  a  sledge-ham- 
mer for  pulverizing  rocks,  that  is,  the  hoof  is  driven  over,  and 
jammed  against  stony  surfaces,  impelled  by  the  enormous  momentum 
of  from  seven  to  eighteen  hundred  pounds  (the  range  of  weights  of 
the  animal  in  general  use)  in  rapid  motion.  This  living  mallet  (foot) 
is  composed  of  bones,  ligaments,  blood-vessels,  nerves,  and  a  lami- 
nated elastic  fibro-cartilaginous  structure,  (with  anatomical  cha- 
racters peculiar  to  the  solipeds,)  in  the  form  of  plates,  or  blades, 
which  coalesce  or  dovetail  with  a  similarly  laminated  extension  of  the 
horny  elements  of  the  hoof,  uniting  the  last  bone  of  the  extremity 
with  the  hoof,  which  is  also  alive  or  full  of  nerves  and  blood-vessels 
to  a  point  called  the  "quick,"  all  being  enveloped  in  a  dead  insensi- 
ble, but  still  elastic  crust,  the  outer  layer  of  the  foot,  to  which  free 
expansion  is  given  by  a  spongy  cushion  or  hinge  called  the  frog, 
also  destitute  of  sensibility,  uniting  the  sides  of  the  sole  of  the  foot, 
or  point  of  contact  of  the  animal,  with  the  earth.  This  body  receives 
all  the  vibrations  of  the  crust,  and  is  the  centre  of  all  contractions 
and  expansions  of  the  hoof.  To  prevent  the  destruction  of  the  whole 
mallet,  it  is  faced  with  a  rim  of  iron,  as  a  hammer  is  rendered  inde- 
structible by  a  facing  of  steel.  The  elasticity  of  the  hoof  destroyed, 
the  foot  becomes  lame,  and  is  finally  useless.  To  the  reflecting  mind, 
then,  the  arming  of  the  horses  foot  with  iron  is  no  longer  a  mere  me- 
chanical nailing  of  a  curved  bar  of  metal  on  a  stick  of  timber.  The 
shoeing  of  the  horse  is  an  art,  requiring  scientific  knowledge  and 
great  mechanical  skill,  scarcely  ever  possessed  by  the  common  smith. 
Hence  the  wholesale  destruction  of  the  hoof  and  constantly  fatal 
damaging  of  that  noble  animal. 


BIRDS.  317 


CLASS  IL-AVES. 

OVIPAROUS  YERTEBRATA,  (Birds.) 

VISIONS  of  sentiment  and  beauty  come  with  the  bird,  for 
his  life  is  embalmed  in  aroma  and  love,  thoughts  of  glad- 
ness gleam  from  his  pinions,  for  his  motions  are  like  the 
"swift-winged  arrows  of  light;"  but  his  voice!  the  wild, 
sweet  voice  of  the  bird,  that  song,  heard  through  far- 
away deeps  as  a  sacred  trance  of  the  soul,  and  delicious 
revery  of  the  heart,  as  the  memory  of  other  days,  and  the 
joys  of  youth,  touches  with  emotions  "  that  chain  the  spirit 
to  the  gates  of  Paradise." 

"  Yet  has  each,  soul  an  inborn  feeling 

Impelling  it  to  mount  and  soar  away, 
When,  lost  in  heaven's  blue  depths,  the  lark  is  pealing 

High  overhead  her  airy  lay ; 
When  o'er  the  mountain  pine's  black  shadow 

With  outspread  wing  the  eagle  sweeps, 
And,  steering  on  o'er  lake  and  meadow, 

The  crane  his  homeward  journey  keeps." 

Swift  gliding  harbingers  of  lovely  dreams,  these  frag- 
ments of  the  perfection  of  the  world,  come,  a  sweet  and 
touching  mediation  between  the  dumb,  inarticulate,  uncom- 
municating  animal,  and  the  high  speaking  consciousness  of 
man.  As  creatures  of  beauty  their  suggestions  are  exhaust- 
less  in  artistic  intimations,  as  instruments  of  the  miracles  of 
instinct,  they  open  abysses  unfathomable  by  human  thought, 
and  as  organs  of  musical  ecstasy  they  speak  of  "that  which, 
in  all  this  mortal  life,  we  have  not  seen,  and  never  shall 
see."  "The  bird  is  thoroughly,  or  out-and-out,  organized 
as  an  animal  of  song.  In  it  nature  attains  unto  a  definite 
hearing  and  speech.  The  bird  speaketh  the  language  of 

27* 


318  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

nature.  With  the  bird,  the  voice,  properly  speaking,  breaks 
forth  for  the  first  time,  and  that,  too,  in  a  high  grade  of  per- 
fection, as  melody." 

In  the  bird,  nature  seems  to  have  ultimated  her  first  most 
delicate  and  elaborate  form  of  sensuous  existence.  Whether 
we  contemplate  the  furnishing  of  its  structure  by  special 
styles  of  organic  mechanisms,  adapting  its  body  to  existence, 
and  motion  in  a  gaseous  medium,  and  a  life  of  ethereal  sus- 
pensions, or  the  wisdom  of  its  wonderful  instincts,  far  tran- 
scending the  deductions  of  reason,  or  the  intuitions  of  the 
intellect  in  executing  migrations  almost  circum-mundane  in 
their  extents,  or  other  extraordinary  endowments,  as  of 
love  and  fidelity  almost  human,  or  of  music,  beyond  all 
imitations  of  science  in  depth  and  touching  compass,  the 
bird  appears  the  sure  and  ineffable  consummation  and 
earnest  fruitage,  of  the  whole  lower  or  purely  animal  do- 
main. 

"In  the  bird,  also,  all  the  spiritual  or  mental  faculties 
make  their  appearance  for  the  first  time,  and  suddenly, 
whereas,  in  the  preceding  classes,  (Reptiles,  Fishes,  etc.,) 
but  slight  traces  of  them  are  observed.  Such,  for  example, 
are  their  mechanical  instincts,  varied  modes  of  nidification, 
powers  of  imitation,  susceptibility  to  instruction,  knowledge 
of  their  benefactors,  sentiment  of  joy,  wheedling  or  coax- 
ing manners,  and  so  on.  We  have  no  example  of  fishes  and 
reptiles  having  learned  any  artificial  tricks."  (?) 

Surely  human  are  these  revelations,  certainly  detached  and 
individual,  as  endowed  with  organic  will,  comes  this  wonder- 
ful being,  elevated  and  ennobled  by  the  enchanting  elements 
and  specific  attributes  of  character.  Hence  the  enthusiasm  of 
its  lovers ;  hence  the  devotion  and  life-long  faithfulness  of  its 
scientific  votaries,  and  the  deep  absorption  of  the  true  student 
of  ornithology.  The  names  of  zealous  worshipers  come  with 
the  voice  of  the  bird  and  the  murmur  of  the  woods,  and  Wil- 
son, Audubon,  Bonaparte,  and  Cassin,  are  aptly  associated 
in  the  imagination  with  musical  groves,  and  the  lives  and 
habitudes  of  the  light-winged  denizens  of  the  air.  Of  the 


BIRDS.  319 

economical  relationships  of  birds  to  man,  of  their  friendly 
associations  with  him,  making  bright  and  cheerful  his  sur- 
roundings, of  their  intelligent  and  curious  habits,  presenting 
ceaseless  objects  of  study  and  observation,  the  works  of  the 
bird  biographers  are  beautiful  records ;  stories  redolent  of 
picturesque  solitudes  and  the  enchantments  of  the  grove. 

This  interesting  class  of  animals  is  found  from  the  Equa- 
tor to  the  Poles.  Their  forms  and  plumage  are  as  widely 
different  and  as  wonderfully  diversified  as  their  habits  and 
habitats.  There  are  arctic,  temperate,  and  tropical  birds, 
and  they  all  strikingly  reveal  the  influence  of  the  medium  in 
which  they  exist.  Arctic  ornithology,  like  arctic  mamma- 
logy, is  peculiar  in  style  and  color,  being  generally  white  or 
light  colored,  aquatic  birds  abounding.  The  temperate  birds 
have  not  much  variety  of  color  generally,  but  the  tropical  birds 
exhaust  every  pigment  of  the  chemist  and  painter,  and  sport 
all  colors,  not  only  of  the  rainbow,  but  every  undescribed 
and  indescribable  tint,  metallic  sheen,  or  hue.  It  is,  like- 
wise, one  of  the  most  extensive  classes  of  animals.  Some 
conception  of  the  immensity  of  this  department  may  be  ob- 
tained by  a  visit  to  the  invaluable  museum  of  the  Academy 
of  Natural  Sciences,  Philadelphia.  Of  this  collection,  Dr. 
Ruschenberger,  in  his  clever  notice  of  the  academy,  says  "  It 
has  grown  to  be  the  most  extensive  and  the  very  best  in  the 
world."  In  1852  there  were  27,000  specimens  in  this  col- 
lection. Mr.  Cassin  now  alleges  that  this  number  has  been 
largely  increased,  and  is  constantly  being  added  to  from  all 
quarters.  He  supposes  there  may  now  be  in  the  academy 
7500  distinct  species,  which  constitute  most  of  the  known 
birds  of  the  world. 

After  a  walk  through  the  galleries  of  this  magnificent 
collection,  the  brain  is  absolutely  dizzy,  and  the  mind  stunned 
and  confused  by  the  infinite  array  of  every  imaginable  style, 
form,  and  color  of  bird  obtained  from  every  point  of  the 
surface  of  the  planet. 

The  Alleghany  Mountain  being  the  highest  line  of  knobs, 
or  range  of  Alpine  points,  of  the  Appalachian  chain,  sepa- 


320  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

rates,  as  by  a  comb,  the  inclined  planes  of  the  East  Missis- 
sippi Yalley  and  Atlantic  slope.  In  their  migrations  north 
and  south,  following  the  brush  of  the  sun,  many  birds 
journey  through  the  interior  valley,  as  their  track  of  travel, 
but  perhaps  a  larger  number  take  the  Atlantic  side,  finding 
in  both  these  regions  milder  climate,  and  more  food  than  the 
mountain  crests  afford.  This  applies  both  to  land  and  water 
birds,  but  especially  the  latter.  The  larger  aquatic  birds 
having  oceanic  affinities,  of  course  take  the  Atlantic  side, 
while  the  birds  that  have  lacustrine  and  river  habits  prefer 
the  interior  valley  in  their  transits.  These  points  are  arranged 
by  the  harmonious  economics  on  the  question  of  food  and 
comfort.  The  bird  that  breeds  on  the  shores  of  Hudson's 
Bay  and  passes  the  winter  on  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  will  make  the  journeys  between  these  points  over 
the  route  on  which  he  finds  the  best  "bed  and  board."  The 
rivulets  of  the  Mississippi  and  Atlantic  running  from  the 
mountain  form  but  few  bodies  of  water  on  those  heights, 
consequently,  the  aquatic  birds  avoid  these  ranges  in  their 
journeyings.  This  is  also  the  case  with  the  land  birds  that 
breed  far  north,  and  consequently,  the  Alleghany  is  not 
visited  by  as  large  a  number  of  birds,  both  land  and  water, 
as  the  other  lines  of  surfaces  above  designated. 

To  the  thoughtful  observer,  one  of  the  most  imposing  ex- 
periences of  the  deep  forests  of  this  range,  is  their  unbroken 
silence  from  the  absence  of  animal  life  in  every  shape,  particu- 
larly birds.  Frequently,  for  great  extents,  a  stillness  as  of 
the  grave  reigns ;  no  life,  no  motion,  but  a  solemn  and  op- 
pressive calm  broods  over  the  wilderness.  If  there  is  no 
wind,  which  always  gives  motion  and  the  semblance  of  life, 
from  creaking  branches  and  rustling  leaves,  a  fragment  of 
bark,  a  limb,  or  a  tree  falling,  startles  as  if  the  spirit-world 
were  invaded  and  the  seclusion  and  quiet  of  death  pro- 
faned. At  certain  seasons  this  cheerlessness  and  solitude  is 
more  striking  than  at  others.  This  scarcity  of  birds  is,  no 
doubt,  accounted  for  by  the  want  of  the  variety  of  food 


HAWK.  321 

required  by  the  different  species  in  these  woods,  especially 
throughout  the  extents  of  pine  and  hemlock  forests. 

A  number  of  birds  of  far  northern  migratory  range  are 
found  during  the  winter  on  the  mountain,  and  the  traveling 
crowds  stop  here  on  their  passage  north  and  south,  spring 
and  fall.  In  these  instances,  the  mountain  is  of  course  only 
"a  tent  of  the  night,"  the  birds  being  strangers  and  visitors 
merely. 

The  catalogue  of  the  birds  of  the  mountain  will  include 
some  notice  of  constant  visitors,  but  particularly  those  spe- 
cies that  remain  there  during  the  breeding  season,  or  that 
pass  the  summer  there,  building  their  nests  as  regular  homes, 
producing  their  young,  and  thus  establishing  permanet  citi- 
zenship by  actual  settlement.  Many  of  the  shy  solitary  spe- 
cies seem  to  prefer  the  mountain  fastnesses  for  their  lines  of 
migration  and  permanent  homes,  and  make  glad  the  most 
savage  places.  They  will  be  noticed  in  the  hasty  catalogue 
which  follows,  with  something  occasionally  of  their  habits 
and  peculiarities. 

As  already  observed,  the  mountain  is  visited  by  many  birds 
that  remain  there  during  the  summer,  and  breed  there,  some 
in  the  forests  and  glens,  others  in  open  and  cultivated  parts, 
while  others  seek  the  most  rugged  knobs  and  inaccessible 
spots.  The  following  list  comprises  many  of  the  most 
commonly  observed  birds  of  the  range,  either  as  migrating 
travelers  or  regular  inhabitants. 


RAPACIOUS  BIRDS. 

HAWKS. 
(Family  Falconidas.) 

FALCO  Columbarius,  (Linn.)  Pigeon  hawk. — This  is  a 
shy  and  wary  little  hawk,  very  wild,  watchful,  and  rarely 
seen.  Nuttall  states  that  it  has  been  met  as  far  north  as 
48°,  "  even  extending  its  migrations  as  far  as  Hudson's  Bay," 
although  chiefly  an  inhabitant  of  the  Southern  States,  and 


322  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

rearing  its  young  there  ;  color,  dusky-brown,  breast  whitish, 
with  blackish  stripes  longitudinal.     Not  at  all  abundant 

FALCO  Sparverius,  (Linn.)  American  sparrow-hawk. — 
This  is  a  less  hawk  than  the  Columbarius,  and  is  the  smallest 
of  his  tribe.  He  is  a  beautiful  little  bird,  with  striking 
marks,  and  gallant  bearing,  and  sometimes  gets  as  far 
north  as  53°.  Color,  rufous,  beneath  nearly  white,  spotted 
with  brown ;  seven  black  curved  spots  around  head ;  wing 
covers  slate-blue,  etc.  Prey,  mice,  small  birds,  lizards,  etc. 
It  is  common. 

HALIAETUS  Leucocephalus,  (Linn.)  Bald  eagle. — This 
beautiful  eagle  has  an  extremely  wide  range,  and  is  some- 
times seen  on  the  knobs  and  in  the  water  gaps  of  the  moun- 
tain. As  his  general  prey  is  fish,  he  haunts  the  larger 
streams.  He  is  occasionally  seen  soaring  around  the  spurs 
near  the  gaps  of  the  important  water -courses.  "Color, 
dark-brown,  head  and  tail  white,  feet,  bill,  and  cere  yellow." 
This  eagle  is  a  regular  pirate,  his  mode  of  capturing  his 
booty  being  a  subject  of  interest.* 

PANDION  Halisetus,  (Linn.)  Fish-hawk. — This  splendid 
hawk  is  rare.  A  short  distance  from  the  slopes  of  the 
Alleghany,  along  the  streams,  he  is  sometimes  found.  He 
is  a  regular  fisher,  and  has  an  extensive  range.  Color, 
"  dark-brown,  beneath  white,  feet  and  cere  blue."  He  is  a 
great  favorite  with  some  of  the  old  ornithologists,  who  give 
him  high  qualities,  and  mark  his  life  with  sentiment  and 
romance.  He  is  the  constant  victim  of  the  marauding  pro- 
pensities of  the  bald  eagle. 

'BUTEO  Borealis,  (Gmel.)  Red-tailed  hawk,  American 
buzzard. — This  beautiful  bird  is  found  over  the  whole  United 
States.  It  is  a  bold  and  predatory  species,  often  invading 
the  barn-yard,  but  generally  finding  his  prey  in  the  woods, 
devouring  squirrels,  birds,  and  occasionally  condescending 
to  feed  upon  mice,  moles,  and  frogs.  Color,  "  dark-brown 
above,  white,  with  dark  spots  beneath,  tail  reddish,  with 

*  He  is  the  far-famed  "American  Eagle." 


HAWK.  323 

black  terminal  bands."  "One  of  the  most  common  and 
easily  recognized  of  the  North  American  species." — Cassin. 

ARCHIBUTEO  Sancti-johannis.  Black  hawk,  rough-legged 
buzzard. — This  bird  is  not  often  seen  on  the  mountain.  Mr. 
Cassin  remarks,  "  This  is  one  of  the  most  abundant  birds  of 
this  family  in  all  the  Atlantic  States,  and  is  one  of  the  most 
variable  in  plumage."  Color,  black,  with  brownish  mottling ; 
length,  twenty-two  to  twenty-four  inches. 

ACCIPITER  Fuscus,  (Gmel.)  Sharp-shinned  hawk,  chicken- 
hawk. — This  courageous  hawk  has  an  extensive  range.  He 
is  interesting  for  his  daring  and  reckless  valor,  following  his 
prey  any  place  without  fear.  Feeds  upon  birds,  poultry,  and 
squirrels.  "  Color,  dark-slate,  beneath  white,  barred  with 
reddish." — Nutt.  "Upper  part  dark  brownish-black,  tinged 
with  ashy,  occiput  mixed  with  white." — Cas.  Length, 
twelve  to  fourteen  inches.  Cassin  observes  that  this  little 
hawk  is  one  of  the  most  common  North  American  species. 

ACCIPITER  Cooperii,  (Bon.)  Cooper's  hawk. — This  fine 
species,  according  to  Cassin,  has  for  a  habitat  the  "entire 
territory  of  the  United  States."  It  visits  the  mountain,  but 
is  rare.  It  is  larger  than  the  sharp-shinned  hawk.  "  Color, 
upper  part  dark  ashy-brown,  shafts  of  feathers  brownish- 
black,  an  obscure  rufous  collar  on  neck  behind,  beneath 
rufous  and  white,  transversely  barred ;  length,  female, 
eighteen  to  twenty  inches ;  male,  sixteen  to  seventeen." — 
Cas.  The  females  of  predatory  birds  are  larger  and  finer 
looking  than  the  males,  reversing  the  order  of  things  with 
many  other  classes  of  birds  and  animals,  where  the  male 
sports  all  the  ornamental  additions  to  the  species.* 

BTJTEO  Lineatus,  (Gmel.)  Red-shouldered  hawk,  winter 
falcon. — This  is  a  noble-looking  bird,  "  some  twenty-two  to 
twenty-four  inches  in  length," — Cas.  He  has  not  a  far 

*  "The  first  spiritual  want  of  the  barbarous  man  being  decora- 
tion,'" does  he  take  the  hint  from  the  streamer  of  the  chicken-cock 
and  mane  of  the  stallion  ?  The  last  spiritual  want  of  the  civilized  wo- 
man being  also,  and  only  decoration,  does  she  take  the  hint  from  the 
superior  plumage  of  the  feminine  eagle  and  hawk  ? 


324  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

northern  range,  and  is  very  abundant  in  the  winter  at  the 
South.  He  is  frequently  seen  on  the  tall  pines  along 
water-courses,  watching  for  frogs  and  small  animals.  Color, 
"brown,  beneath  white,  tail  red,  with  bands."  "An  abund- 
ant and  very  difficult  species  to  the  student." — Cas. 

CIRCUS  Hudsonius,  (Linn.)  Hen-harrier. — This  bird  has 
a  far  northern  range,  traveling  from  Hudson's  Bay  to  the 
southern  part  of  the  United  States.  Its  prey  consists  of 
frogs,  lizards,  and  small  birds.  Color,  "  bluish-gray,  female 
brown  ;"  length,  twenty  inches.  It  is  sometimes  seen  along 
the  streams  and  marshy  places  of  the  mountain. 

Many  of  these  rapacious  birds  are  fine  noble-looking  crea- 
tures, but  the  imagination  in  endowing  them  with  magnani- 
mous qualities,  or  estimable  characters,  commits  a  blunder 
unwarrantable  by  a  critical  study  of  their  true  natures.  An 
accomplished  observer  of  the  bird  world,  and  withal  a  re- 
flecting and  philosophical  naturalist,  with  an  eye  to  the  law 
and  spirit  which  speaks  the  meaning  of  the  deep  soul  under- 
lying the  outward  phenomenal,  remarks, — "  It  is,  however, 
entirely  erroneous  to  attribute  a  noble  or  generous  character 
to  any  of  the  predatory  animals,  though  from  an  early  period 
of  history  several  species  have  been  so  regarded.  On  the 
contrary,  there  is,  in  all  these  classes,  whether  of  birds  or  of 
other  animals,  a  marked  absence  of  the  very  traits  which  are 
in  some  measure  assigned  to  them,  and  even  more  unmis- 
takably so  in  some  of  the  more  celebrated,  as  the  eagles  and 
lions,  than  in  the  more  humble  species.  They  appear  to 
personate  a  principle,  if  we  may  be  allowed  to  use  the  ex- 
pression, involving  one  of  the  most  momentous  and  mys- 
terious of  problems,  the  existence  of  evil  in  the  world.  The 
prowling  and  treacherous  lion,  and  the  robber  wolf,  have 
unfortunately  but  too  strong  analogies  in  that  race  which  is 
the  head  of  the  visible  creation,  and  they  and  their  kind 
everywhere  present  the  same  intrinsic  meanness  which  is 
characteristic  of  violence  and  injustice,  of  vice  and  of  crime 
among  men." — Cassin,  Birds  of  America,  p.  159. 


OWL.  325 


OWLS. 
(Family  Strigidse.) 

Nocturnal  birds  of  prey.  These  are  the  cats  of  the  bird 
tribe.  Their  whole  structure  is  arranged  for  preying  at 
night,  ears  to  hear  the  cricket  and  mouse  chirp,  or  bug  un- 
der the  leaf;  eyes  to  see  their  minutest  prey  in  the  darkness; 
and  soft  downy  feathers  to  glide  like  spectres  in  silence. 
There  are  but  few  species  on  the  mountain. 

SCOPS  Asio,  (Linn.)  Red  owl. — This  is  the  little  screech- 
owl  found,  according  to  Nuttall,  from  Greenland  to  Florida. 
It  is  friendly  and  familiar,  approaching  houses  and  sitting 
on  apple-trees  and  bushes  almost  in  contact  with  the  dwell- 
ing. He  preys  only  at  night,  feeding  on  mice  and  small 
birds,  even  beetles  and  moths.  "  Color,  brown,  ash,  and 
rusty-red,  mixed  with  black  ;  length,  ten  to  eleven  inches." — 
Nuttall. 

BUBO  Yirginianus,  (Gm.)  Great  horned  or  cat  owl. — This 
large  night-bird,  "king  of  the  nocturnal  tribe  of  American 
birds, "is found  on  the  mountain.  His  startling  hoot,  or  strange 
and  melancholy  boo-heo,  is  heard  at  night  in  almost  every 
wood  of  any  extent,  and  being  loud  and  sonorous,  it  is  audible 
at  a  great  distance.  He  is  found  from  Hudson's  Bay  to 
Florida.  Color,  mixed,  brownish  and  black ;  he  is  twenty 
inches  long.  Prey,  young  rabbits,  birds,  squirrels,  mice,  etc. 
In  a  dark,  silent  night,  nothing  can  be  more  ominous  and 
unearthly  than  the  notes  of  this  gloomy  bird.  Mr.  Cassin 
has  described  four  varieties,  showing  quite  a  difference  of 
plumage  in  the  species,  which  has  given  rise  to  much  trouble 
among  ornithologists. 

OTUS  Wilsonianus,  (Lesson.)  Long-eared  owl. — Nuttall 
represents  this  bird  as  "  almost  a  denizen  of  the  world,  being 
found  from  Hudson's  Bay  to  the  West  Indies,  throughout 
Europe,  in  Africa,  Asia,  and  China."  Color,  "mottled 
black  and  brown,  ear-tufts  long  ;  length,  fourteen  inches." — 
Nuttall.  Barely  seen  on  the  mountain.  Cassin  says,  "  This 

28 


326  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

is  one  of  the  commonest  species  of  owls  in  the  Northern 
and  Eastern  States  on  the  Atlantic." 

SYRNIUM  Nebulosum,  (Foster.)  Barred  owl. — This  owl 
has  a  continental  range.  Color,  "  grayish-brown,  with  trans- 
verse whitish  spots,  beneath  whitish,  with  longitudinal  spots 
of  brown." — Nut.  Length,  sixteen  to  twenty  inches.  This 
owl  is  sometimes  seen  in  numbers  on  the  mountain. 

OTUS  Brachyotus,  (Foster.)  Short-eared  owl. — This  is  a 
northern  bird,  breeding  at  Hudson's  Bay,  where  it  goes  in 
May.  Between  September  and  May  it  sometimes  visits  the 
mountain.  Color,  ochreous,  blackish-brown  spots  ;  length, 
thirteen  to  fifteen  inches  ;  feeds  on  mice,  and  is  a  daring  and 
courageous  bird. 

STRIX  Pratincola,  (Linn.)  White,  or  barn  owl. — This 
species,  although  a  cosmopolite,  is  but  rarely  seen  on  the 
Alleghany.  Color,  "yellowish,  with  darkish  zigzag  lines, 
small  spots  of  white,  beneath  whitish." — Nut.  Length,  four- 
teen inches.  This  is  the  unhappy  representative  of  his  family 
so  "hooted  at,"  maligned,  and  bedeviled  by  superstitious 
poets  and  the  small  singing  birds  that  he  eats.*  He  devours 
mice,  birds,  rats,  and  moles,  and,  like  the  rest  of  his  wise 
brotherhood,  says  very  little,  as  all  fellows  do  who  have  very 
little  to  say,  and  of  consequence  is  reckoned  very  knowing 
and  sharp  by  common  consent.  He  is  a  poor  prophet,  and 
consequently,  as  a  bird  of  either  good  or  evil  omen,  is  a  hum- 
bug. Mice  and  rats  he  is  after,  but  has  not  time  to  appear 
as  herald  of  the  angel  of  death,  except  at  the  death  of  his 
own  victims. 

OMNIVOROUS  BIRDS. 

LARK. 

STURNTJS  Ludovicianus. — This  is  the  American  meadow 
lark,  and  is  a  common  bird,  being  found  wherever  the  sur- 

*  When  the  owl  appears  in  daylight  he  is  attacked  by  the  whole 
crowd  of  the  birds  of  the  wood  in  concert,  and  most  villainously 
maltreated  by  all. 


ROBIN — ORIOLE — BLACKBIRD.         327 

face  is  cleared  into  fields,  but  having  a  special  love  for 
meadows.  He  is  a  summer  visitor,  although  the  snows 
sometimes  catch  him.  Nuttall  remarks,  "  Wilson  even  ob- 
served them  in  the  month  of  February,  during  a  deep  snow 
among  the  heights  of  the  Alleghanies,  gleaning  their  scanty 
pittance  on  the  road  in  company  with  the  small  snowbird." 
This  is  not  unusual.  He  is  familiar  to  all,  is  a  beautiful 
bird,  and  has  always  been  much  admired  for  his  thrilling 
notes,  which  he  utters  on  the  wing. 

ICTERUS  Baltimore,  golden  robin,  or  hanging  bird,  passes 
its  summers  on  the  Alleghanies,  and  breeds  there,  but  is  not 
very  abundant.  He  is  seen  occasionally  in  the  forests,  but 
seems  to  prefer  a  nearer  approach  to  the  residence  of  man. 
His  bright  and  beautiful  form,  however,  flashes  through  the 
denser  woods,  the  golden  sheen  of  his  brilliant  plumage 
startling  the  eye  of  the  traveler.  He  is  well  known  to  all, 
and  his  melodious  notes  hailed  as  a  voice  of  the  spring. 
His  pensile  nest,  .woven  out  of  stolen  thread,  flax,  hair,  and 
feathers,  and  hanging  like  a  bag  from  some  pendent  branch, 
is  one  of  the  most  interesting  objects  in  nature.  His  bio- 
graphers ecstasize  over  him,  being  seduced  by  his  beauty 
and  intelligence,  and  captivated  by  his  song.  He  possesses 
powers  of  mimicking  quite  remarkable. 

ICTERUS  Spurius,  (Bon.)  Orchard  oriole. — This  is  a  much 
plainer  species,  and  not  so  large  as  the  golden  robin.  It 
comes  to  the  mountain  during  the  first  part  of  May.  This 
species  has  many  of  the  interesting  elements  of  character 
which  mark  the  Baltimore  oriole  :  the  same  deep  bag-nest, 
same  social  instincts,  etc.  Of  this  bird,  Nuttall  remarks, 
"  It  appears  to  affect  the  elevated  and  airy  regions  of  the 
Alleghany  Mountains,  where  it  is  much  more  numerous  than 
the  Baltimore-"  This  will  not  apply  to  the  Pennsylvania 
Alleghanies,  where  the  other  oriole  is  much  more  numerous 
certainly. 

ICTERUS  Phoeniceus,  (Daud.)  The  red-winged  blackbird 
is  a  very  common  species  of  the  genus.  This  oriole  is 
found  on  the  mountains,  in  every  swamp  and  meadow, 


328  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

and  the  summer  is  made  noisy  by  him  wherever  the  surface 
is  cleared  of  forests,  and  there  is  water,  bushes,  and  tall 
grass.  It  is  a  familiar  and  much-admired  bird,  inhabiting 
North  America  from  Nova  Scotia  to  Mexico.  They  travel 
north  with  the  purple  grakle,  ferruginous  blackbird,  and 
cowbird,  in  the  latter  part  of  April,  leaving  for  the  south 
in  November. 

ICTERUS  Icterocephalus,  yellow-headed  troopial. — In  cha- 
racter and  habits  much  like  the  red-winged  blackbird.  This 
bird,  Nuttall  says,  "  ranges  from  Cayenne  to  Missouri,  and 
is  wholly  confined  to  the  west  side  of  Mississippi,  beyond 
which  not  even  a  straggler  has  yet  been  seen."  A  flock  of 
this  species  appeared  on  the  western  side  of  the  mountain 
in  the  fall  of  1857,  notwithstanding  the  statement  of  the 
illustrious  Nuttall.  On  the  eastern  side  of  the  mountain  its 
appearance  has  been  noticed  but  rarely.  We  must,  conse- 
quently, catalogue  the  yellow-headed  troopial  as  an  occa- 
sional visitor  of  the  mountain. 

ICTERUS  Pecoris,  (Temm.) — This  is  the  cow  troopial,  and 
is  seen  often  here,  but  not  in  large  numbers.  In  its  migra- 
tions it  takes  the  range  of  the  valleys  parallel  to  the  moun- 
tain. It  does  not  breed  here,  but  passes  along  on  his 
journey,  being  found  accidentally  with  other  birds  in  migra- 
tory troops.  A  thief  and  scavenger,  parasite  and  outlaw, 
even  as  a  traveler  he  cannot  be  concealed,  but  sneaks  about 
the  fields,  sometimes  approaching  barns,  and  indulging  in 
his  fancy  to  associate  with  cattle. 

BIRDS   RELATED   TO   THE   CROWS. 

QUISCALUS  Yersicolor. — This  is  the  common  crow  black- 
bird, an  inhabitant  of  the  whole  continent.  He  is  found 
here  in  his  usual  abundance  as  a  regular  resident,  and  in 
crowds  or  migrating  parties  as  a  visitor,  fall  and  spring. 
He  is  a  noisy  and  troublesome  bird,  and  here,  like  every 
place  else,  is  one  of  the  commonest  birds.  It  breeds  from 
Nova  Scotia  to  Louisiana. 

QUISCALUS  Ferrugineus,  occasionally  stops  for  a  time  on 


CROW.  329 

the  mountains,  in  its  hurried  migrations,  but  does  not  breed 
here,  and  is  rarely  seen  at  all  except  en  route  for  the  north, 
where  it  nests  and  establishes  "civic  relationships." 

TRUE  CROWS. 

CORVUS  Corax,  is  the  raven.  It  is  not  an  abundant  species, 
but  its  gaunt,  ugly,  black  form  may  occasionally  be  seen 
perched  on  a  tall  hemlock,  or  his  discordant  croak  heard,  as 
he  heavily  wades  his  way  through  the  air.  In  all  regions  a 
bird  of  ill  omen,  he  is  the  special  aversion  of  many  "  on  ac- 
count of  his  indiscriminate  voracity,  sombre  livery,  discord- 
ant croaking,  ignoble,  wild,  and  funeral  aspect." 

The  raven  is  an  interesting  bird,  from  his  long  association 
in  the  imagination  of  man  with  superstitious  fears  and  pro- 
phecies of  disasters,  and  if  his  biographers  the  ornithologists 
do  not  romance,  he  is  really  quite  wonderful  in  his  instincts 
and  habits.  Nuttall  remarks,  "Though  spread  over  the 
whole  world,  they  are  rarely  ever  birds  of  passage,  enduring 
the  winters  even  of  the  arctic  circle,  or  the  warmth  of 
Mexico,  St.  Domingo,  and  Madagascar."  The  raven  is 
patient  and  devoted  in  its  attachment,  and  lives  to  be  a 
hundred  years  old. 

CORVUS  Americanus,  crow. — This  rascally  species  occurs 
in  numbers  through  the  whole  range  of  the  mountain.  He 
is  found  in  flocks,  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year,  more  or 
less  numerous,  and  sometimes  in  hundreds,  almost  darken- 
ing the  air,  and  filling  the  region  where  he  is  either  fly- 
ing or  roosting,  with  his  noisy  cawing.  A  hardy  wretch, 
he  braves  the  fiercest  storms  of  the  Alleghanies,  passing  his 
winters  in  great  numbers  in  the  forests.  Large  flocks  collect 
together  and  go  through  certain  ranges  of  country,  seeming 
to  have  favorite  places  for  roosting.  These  are  generally  in 
dark  woods  of  hemlock  and  pine,  or  in  deep,  sequestered 
ravines.  Flocks  are  often  seen  pursuing  their  flight  in  the 
midst  of  the  roughest  storms,  with  the  whole  air  full  of  fly- 
ing snow,  their  jet-black  bodies  spotting  the  clouds.  They 
may  often  be  seen  stalking  over  the  snow-drifts  in  search 

28* 


380  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

of  food,  or  strutting  along  roads,  gleaning  a  miserable  pit- 
tance. Like  the  raven,  the  crow  is  a  bird  of  evil  omen,  and, 
like  that  bird,  celebrated  for  "unrestrained  natural  affec- 
tion," accompanying,  protecting,  and  succoring  its  young 
until  grown  to  the  adult  stage.  They  are  considered  de- 
structive birds,  and  are  condemned  and  destroyed  in  great 
numbers  on  that  account.  Great  wit  and  wisdom  is  attri- 
buted to  the  crow,  great  cunning  and  wiliness.  This  is 
somewhat  fabulous,  for  it  is  not  so  cunning  or  cautious  even 
in  the  wildest  parts  of  the  mountains  at  any  time  but  that 
it  may  be  shot  or  taken  by  stratagem.  The  range  of  the 
crow  is  world-wide.  It  is  found  in  Siberia,  New  Holland, 
the  Philippine  Islands,  and  United  States.  It  breeds  every 
place,  and  it  is  said  the  "  conjugal  union  once  formed,  con- 
tinues for  life. " 

CYANURUS  Cristatus,  or  blue  jay. — This  is  a  common  spe- 
cies on  the  mountain.  He  is  a  brilliant,  exquisite  bird,  impos- 
ing in  his  form,  and  with  an  extreme  profusion  of  ornament  in 
his  dress.  Sporting  a  fine  erectile  crest  upon  his  head,  and 
a  graceful  train  of  tail,  his  plumage  mixed  with  azure,  white, 
black,  gray,  and  "vinaceous,"  all  of  the  brightest  tints  and 
clearest  hue,  he  would  seem  rather  to  belong  to  the  tropics, 
the  region  of  highly-colored  birds,  than  to  the  cold  mountains 
of  the  north,  and  would  certainly  never  be  suspected  to  be  re- 
lated to  the  sombre  brotherhood  of  crows.  He  is  found  in 
numbers  at  all  seasons,  with  the  exception  of  partial  migra- 
tions or  "predatory  excursions,"  and  bears,  like  the  com- 
mon crow,  often  the  coldest  winter  weather,  seeming  to 
delight  in  the  wind  and  snow  with  "  wild  uproar."  A  noisy 
and  garrulous  chatterer,  he  soon  announces  his  presence  to 
all  the  inhabitants  of  the  woods  by  a  variety  of  discordant 
notes.  His  gay,  bright  form,  gleams  like  a  gem  through  the 
forest,  and  is  sure  to  attract  attention  by  his  strange  and 
foreign  aspect.  He  has  an  extensive  range  of  habitations 
and  habits,  and  is  a  general  favorite  with  lovers  of  birds,  for 
his  beauty  of  plumage,  peculiarity  of  instincts,  and  style 
of  movement,  possessing  a  talent  for  mimicry,  docility,  and 
great  cunning. 


PARUS — CEDAR-BIRD.  331 

^EGITHALI. 

PARUS. 

The  two  species  of  Parus,  bicolor  and  atricapillus,  visit 
the  mountain.  The  first  of  these  species  is  not  common, 
but  the  second,  the  black-capped  titmouse,  or  chickadee, 
is  found  in  greater  numbers.  This  restless,  hardy  little 
bird  is  said  to  "winter  around  Hudson's  Bay,  and  to  have 
been  met  with  at  62°  on  the  northwest  coast."  Its  pecu- 
liar notes,  tshe-de-de,  tshe-de-de-deait,  may  be  heard  almost 
at  any  time  in  the  woods. 

SERICATI. 

BOMBYCILLA. — Of  this_genus  the  species  Carolinensis, 
or  cedar-bird,  is  common  on  the  Alleghanies.  A  graceful 
and  beautiful  bird,  it  is  seen  in  small  flocks  whirling  around 
through  the  air,  or  sitting,  quietly  and  sedately,  in  rows  upon 
the  branches.  A  lover  of  cherries  and  berries,  he  may 
be  seen  slily  dodging  about  where  these  fruits  are  to  be 
found.  His  biographers  tell  some  interesting  stories  about 
him. 

BOMBYCILLA  Garrula.  Waxen  chatterer. — This  is  only 
a  visitor  of  the  mountain. 

INSECTIVOROUS  BIRDS. 

LANIUS,  butcher-birdf. — The  species  of  this  genus,  "  sep- 
tentrionalis,  or  American  shrike,"  is  seen  sometimes  on  the 
mountain.  A  bold  little  savage,  he  may  occasionally  be  ob- 
served pursuing  his  depredations  with  his  usual  imperti- 
nence and  temerity.  Wilson  remarked  that  it  did  not 
migrate  farther  south  than  Yirginia.  In  March  and  April 
he  seeks  the  forests  of  the  mountains  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
goes  as  far  as  new  England  for  a  summer  residence.  This 
is  a  bird  of  interesting  habits. 

FLY-CATCHERS. 

TYRANNUS  Intrepidus. — This  species,  the  king-bird,  is 
rather  rare  on  the  Alleghany,  compared  with  other  parts 


332  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

of  the  State,  where  he  is  common.  A.  quarrelsome,  crusty, 
and  pugnacious  bird,  he  may  be  seen  carrying  on  his 
usual  sparrings  with  almost  everything  that  flies.  A 
type  of  the  now  fashionable  fillibuster,  his  quarrels  have 
generally  some  gain  to  himself  in  prospective,  a  fight  of 
some  kind,  but  would  prefer  one  that  he  will  be  the  gainer 
after  the  fight  is  over.  A  redeeming  trait  is  his  "  courage 
and  affection  for  his  mate  and  young,"  dwelt  upon  by  his 
biographers,  who  also  delight  to  array  this  little  tyrant  with 
many  wonderful  attributes,  which  are  generally  supposed  to 
belong  to  the  human  species  alone.  Geographic  range,  from 
Mexico  to  Canada. 

TYRANNUS  Crinitus,  (Linn.) — This  species  is  rarely  seen 
on  the  mountains. 

TYRANULA  Fusca. — This  is  the  well-known  pe-wee,  or 
pewit  fly-catcher.  It  is  as  common  as  the  chipping  sparrow, 
and  is  found  everywhere,  near  caves,  barns,  bridges,  and 
rock-ledges  along  streams.  Its  few  notes  are  known  to  all, 
and  its  habits  familiar  to  every  one.  An  innocent  catcher 
of  flies,  he  sits  silently  near  his  nest  watching  for  his  winged 
prey,  which  he  catches  by  a  sudden  whirl  in  the  air,  then 
quietly  resumes  his  perch.  His  few  plaintive  notes  are 
always  welcome  as  announcing  spring. 

TYRANULA  Virens,  wood  pe-wee. — This  species  is  found 
in  the  forests  of  the  mountain,  as  also  the  species  "acadica." 
They  are  shy,  solitary  birds,  and  may  be  seen  sitting  quietly 
in  the  dark  woods  watching  for  their  prey,  which  they  take 
with  great  dexterity  by  quick  circles  in  the  air,  returning  to 
the  spot  from  which  they  started.  The  wood  pe-wee  has  a 
few  peculiarly  plaintive  notes  of  a  tender,  touching  strain, 
which,  in  the  silent  woods,  come  upon  the  ear  with  a  strange, 
unearthly  charm,  awaking  thoughts  and  emotions  that  per- 
haps no  other  sound  could  bring  to  the  soul.  Plain  in 
form,  solitary  in  habits,  it  seems  to  brood,  and  the  re- 
collection alone  of  its  position  on  the  dry  branch  of  a 
tree,  in  the  deep  forest,  brings  pictures  of  cool  retired 
shades,  solitude,  and  silence. 


REDSTART — ICTERIA — VIREO.  333 

SETOPHAGA  Kuticilla,  (Wil.)  American  Redstart. — The 
redstart  is  an  interesting  and  beautiful  bird,  appearing 
about  the  first  of  May,  and  retiring  in  October.  It  is  a 
quick,  active  little  creature,  having  some  musical  notes. 

ICTERIA  Yiridis,  (Bon.)  Yellow-breasted  icteria. — This 
bird  is  said  by  Nuttall  to  be  a  "  summer  resident  of  the 
United  States,  and  to  pass  the  winter  in  Tropical  America, 
being  found  in  Guiana  and  Brazil."  It  is  rare  on  the 
mountain. 

WARBLING  FLY-CATCHERS. 

YIREOS. — This  genus  is  related  to  the  orioles,  in  nidifi- 
cation,  eggs,  color  of  young,  and  females,  song,  and  notes 
of  the  young.  It  is  a  peculiarly  American  group.  They 
live  on  insects  one  part  of  the  season,  and  mix  berries  with 
their  food,  as  that  kind  of  fruit  ripens.  They  confine  their 
hunting  of  insects  to  the  branches  of  trees  and  bushes,  rarely 
coming  to  the  ground  for  that  purpose. 

Of  the  vireos,  an  ancient  friend  has  some  interest- 
ing and  clever  remarks.  "  On  account  of  their  modest  at- 
tire and  sylvan  habits,  the  birds  of  the  group  (vireos) 
to  which  the  present  species  (vireo  atricapillus)  belongs, 
are  seldom  noticed  by  the  general  observer,  though  some  of 
them  are  to  be  met  with  commonly  during  the  summer  in 
nearly  all  parts  of  the  United  States.  But  though  incon- 
spicuous in  appearance,  they  make  ample  compensation  by 
the  loudness  of  their  notes,  which,  after  the  early  love-songs 
of  the  thrushes,  and  others  of  our  songsters  of  spring,  have 
subsided  into  the  more  serious  duties  of  parental  responsi- 
bility, are  to  be  heard  above  those  of  any  other  of  our 
resident  birds.  They  are  active  insect-catchers,  and  may  be 
seen  at  nearly  all  hours  of  the  day  patiently  searching  among 
the  leaves  and  branches  of  the  trees  in  almost  every  wood- 
land, hopping  from  branch  to  branch,  or  sometimes  making 
short  sallies  in  pursuit  of  fugitive  moths  or  butterflies,  and 
occasionally  pausing  to  refresh  themselves  with  a  rather 


334  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

quaint  but  very  melodious  warble,  lengthened  in  the  spring 
into  a  cheerful  and  agreeable  song."* 

YIREO  Flavifrons,  yellow- throated  vireo.— This  lively  little 
bird  is  found  in  the  forests  of  the  mountain.  He  arrives  in 
May,  and  is  soon  seen,  a  restless  hunter,  hurrying  busily 
around  the  twigs  of  the  trees  in  pursuit  of  his  prey,  which  at 
this  season  is  principally  composed  of  insects  and  worms.  His 
voice  is  soon  heard,  and  his  notes  form  one  of  the  most  pecu- 
liar and  exquisite  of  the  songs  of  the  woods.  In  the  words  of 
one  of  his  biographers :  "  In  the  warm  weather,  the  lay  of 
this  bird  is  indeed  peculiarly  strong  and  lively;  and  his 
usually  long-drawn,  almost  plaintive  notes  are  now  delivered 
in  fine  succession,  with  a  peculiar  echoing  and  highly-impres- 
sive musical  cadence  ;  appearing  like  a  romantic  and  tender 
reverie  of  delight."  Toward  the  middle  of  September  he 
leaves  for  the  south.  He  is  an  exceedingly  interesting  little 
musician,  and  his  song  silenced,  one  of  the  sweetest  at- 
tractions of  the  grove  is  gone.  Their  curious  pendent 
nests,  woven  with  great  skill  from  the  branch  of  some  forest 
tree,  may  be  seen  in  numbers  when  the  leaves  have  fallen. 
The  workmanship  of  these  frail  air-baskets  or  sacks  is  quite 
wonderful.  "It  is  attached  firmly  all  round  the  curving 
twigs  by  which  it  is  supported ;  the  stoutest  external  ma- 
terials, or  skeleton  of  the  fabric,  is  formed  of  interlaced  folds 
of  thin  strips  of  red  cedar  (any  flexible)  bark,  connected 
very  intimately  by  coarse  threads  and  small  masses  of  the 
silk  of  spider's  nest,  and  of  the  cocoons  of  large  moths ; 
these  threads  are  moistened  by  the  glutinous  saliva  of  the 
bird.  Among  these  external  materials  are  also  blended  fine 
blades  of  dry  grass.  The  inside  is  thickly  bedded  with  this 
last  material  and  fine  root-fibres,  but  the  finishing  layer,  as 
if  to  preserve  elasticity,  is  of  rather  coarse  grass  stalks. 
Externally  the  nest  is  coated  over  with  green  lichens,  at- 
tached very  artfully  by  slender  strings  of  caterpillar's  silk, 

*  Birds  of  America,  Cassin. 


VIREO.  335 

and  the  whole  afterwards  tied  over  by  almost  invisible 
threads  of  the  same,  so  as  to  appear  as  if  glued  on ;  and 
the  entire  fabric  now  resembles  an  accidental  knot  of  the 
tree  grown  over  with  moss."* 

YIREO  Solitarius,  (Yieill.)  Solitary  vireo. — This  is  a  rare 
species,  but  is  sometimes  seen.  It  has  been  observed  from 
Georgia  to  Pennsylvania,  but  has  been  regarded  as  a 
straggler  in  the  latter  State. 

YIREO  Noveboracensis,  (Bon.)  White-eyed  vireo,  or 
fly-catcher. — This  agile,  industrious,  and  interesting  little 
songster  visits  the  mountain  regularly  in  the  summer  season. 
His  plain,  diminutive  form  would  scarcely  be  observed  or 
attract  attention  but  for  a  series  of  striking  notes  to  which 
he  gives  utterance.  These  are  especially  eccentric  and 
whimsical  in  their  character,  changed  with  great  quickness, 
and  he  is  affirmed,  by  some  of  his  biographers,  to  possess  a 
range  of  imitative  combination  quite  surprising.  He  arrives 
in  April,  and  leaves  in  the  latter  part  of  September,  often 
later.  The  pensile  nests  which  seem  to  characterize  the 
family  of  vireos  is  also  constructed  by  him.  His  food  is  the 
same  as  the  rest  of  the  vireos,  consisting  of  different  kinds 
of  berries  and  of  insects,  of  which  he  is  a  most  vigilant  hunter. 
Of  this  species,  Nuttall  observes,  "  The  present  species  re- 
tires no  farther  for  winter  quarters  than  the  southern  part  of 
the  United  States,  where  many  also  breed,  as  would  appear 
from  the  concomitant  circumstance  of  their  music." 

YIREO  Gilvus,  (Bon.)  Warbling  vireo. — This  is  the  most 
highly  endowed  musical  genius  of  the  family,  indeed  of 
the  whole  woods  almost.  As  a  songster,  he  is  richly 
gifted  with  variety  and  compass  of  notes,  and  for  melody 
and  sweetness,  touching  tenderness,  and  exquisite  delicacy 
of  intonation,  no  vibration  of  art  can  offer  a  parallel.  He 
arrives  on  the  mountain  from  Tropical  America  about  the 
first  of  May,  leaving  the  last  of  September.  He  is  like  the 
rest  of  the  genus  in  all  his  habits.  Nuttall  states  that  "he  is 

*  Nuttall. 


336  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

wholly  confined  to  towns,  and  even  cities."     The  warbling 
vireo  is  certainly  found  on  the  Alleghany  Mountain. 

YIREO  Olivaceus,  (Bon.)  Red-eyed  vireo,  or  fly-catcher. — 
This  bird  arrives  on  the  mountain  in  April.  It  is  a  busy 
and  tireless  songster,  possessed  of  a  variety  of  beautiful 
notes,  which  have  been  attempted  to  be  imitated  in  words 
by  a  number  of  enthusiastic  bird  observers.  It  is  a  common 
species,  and  has  a  range  of  towns  as  well  as  forests.  It  has 
also  the  general  habits  of  the  vireos.  He  leaves  with  the 
crowd  of  retiring  songsters  in  October.  Great  admiration 
is  shown  for  him  as  a  singer.  Of  this  species  Cassin  re- 
marks, "  The  red-eyed  fly-catcher  (Y.  olivaceus)  is  the  most 
numerous,  and  not  only  is  constantly  to  be  met  with  in  the 
woods,  but  ventures  confidently  into  the  public  squares  or 
parks,  and  the  yards  and  gardens  of  the  cities.  In  many 
such  localities  in  Philadelphia,  several  of  which  are  in  the 
densest  parts  of  the  city,  this  little  warbler  rears  its  young, 
and  pipes  out  his  sprightly  song  in  entire  security,  and  ap- 
parently feeling  himself  as  much  at  home  as  if  in  the  re- 
cesses of  the  most  remote  forest.  The  warbling  fly-catcher 
(Y.  gilvus)  is  another  pleasing  singer,  though,  in  our  opin- 
ion, but  an  indifferent  performer  compared  with  the  pre- 
ceding." 

THRUSHES. 

This  is  an  interesting  family,  some  of  which  are  the  most 
familiar  and  universally  admired  of  our  birds. 

MIMUS  Polyglottus,  (Linn.)  Mocking-bird. — This  bird  is 
said  to  inhabit  the  "whole  continent  from  the  State  of 
Rhode  Island  to  equatorial  regions."  It  is  a  plain  bird, 
"  cinerious,  beneath  white,  with  some  white  on  wings  and 
tail."  His  powers  are  wonderful.  Although  the  Alleghany 
is  within  the  geographic  range  given  to  this  bird,  it  has  not 
been  seen  there  yet. 

MIMUS  Rufus,  (Linn.)  Ferruginous  Thrush. — This  is  a 
large  thrush  of  a  light-brown  or  reddish  color,  beneath 
whitish,  with  black  spots,  tail  feathers  long.  It  is  found 


CATBIRD — ROBIN.  337 

from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  Canada,  and  breeds  through  all 
that  region,  coming  north  in  April  and  May,  and  retiring  in 
October  to  the  Southern  States.  The  Thrasher  is  a  song- 
ster of  rich  and  rare  musical  endowments.  It  is  sometimes 
called  the  "mocking-bird,"  but  does  not  seem  to  possess 
powers  of  imitation.  Its  musical  faculties  are  very  little 
inferior  to  those  of  the  mocking-bird,  and  many  of  its  com- 
binations for  depth  of  pathos  and  emotion  are  even  superior. 
Mounted  on  the  topmost  twig  of  a  tree  or  bush,  his  "full 
heart  laboring  with  instinctive  feeling,"  he  pours  out  his  loud, 
clear  notes,  in  sweet  and  trilling  warbles,  or  mingled  with 
low,  plaintive,  and  tender  tones.  They  arrive  in  pairs  on 
the  mountain,  and  their  beautiful  song  is  soon  heard  at  the 
dawn  of  the  morning. 

MIMUS  Felivox,  (Vieill. )  Catbird. — This  is  a  plain  bird,  of 
a  dark-bluish,  or  slate  color,  paler  beneath,  with  a  black  crown 
and  tail.  It  is  a  very  common  and  familiar  species,  having  a 
migratory  range  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  Canada,  and 
perhaps  farther  north.  It  arrives  at  the  mountain  early  in 
April,  and  is  soon  actively  engaged  in  nuptial  preparations 
for  the  coming  season  of  love.  It  is  quick  and  restless, 
almost  in  perpetual  motion,  darting  about  the  thickets  and 
fences  with  ceaseless  eagerness.  It  has  many  fine  combina- 
tions in  its  song,  occasionally  getting  up  a  strain  of  inimitable 
sweetness,  whose  enchantment  is  sometimes  broken  by  its 
peculiar  cat-squall,  a  noise  which  has  given  the  bird  its  name. 
It  possesses  something  of  the  faculty  of  mimicking  other 
birds,  and  is  often  heard  using  notes  of  their  songs 
mingled  with  its  original  lay.  On  this  subject,  Nuttall  re- 
marks :  "A  very  amusing  individual,  which  I  now  describe, 
began  his  vocal  powers  by  imitating  the  sweet  and  low  warble 
of  the  song  sparrow,  as  given  in  the  autumn  ;  and  from  his 
love  of  imitation  on  other  occasions,  I  am  inclined  to  believe 
that  he  possesses  no  original  note  of  his  own,  but  acquires 
and  modulates  the  songs  of  other  birds."  The  catbird  leaves 
the  mountain  early  in  September. 

MERTJLA  Migratoria,  (Linn.)  American  robin. — This  is 
29 


338  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

a  common  bird,  and  a  universally  welcomed  visitor.  A  grace- 
ful and  comely  creature,  with  kind  and  friendly  affinities  for 
man,  he  is  almost  domestic  in  his  habits.  He  approaches 
frankly  and  fearlessly  houses  and  barns,  building  his  nest 
often  in  the  most  exposed  situations,  on  a  fence  or  in  the 
fork  of  an  apple-tree,  seeming  by  a  gallant  confidence  to 
appeal  to  the  generosity  and  magnanimity  of  man  for  pro- 
tection. As  a  destroyer  of  noxious  insects  his  services  are 
invaluable,  and  the  number  of  worms,  slugs,  and  bugs  de- 
voured by  him  is  incredible,  as  he  vigorously  bolts  enormous 
quantities  from  morning  till  night.  He  has  a  sweet  and 
touching  song,  which,  however,  has  not  much  variety.  A 
delightful  enchanter  of  the  field,  his  name  carries  the  dream- 
ing soul  to  sights  and  sounds  of  the  country, — the  flowery 
meadow,  the  running  brook,  the  blossoming  orchard,  all 
made  divine  by  the  song  of  the  beautiful  robin.  His  range 
is  the  "continent,  from  Hudson's  Bay,  in  the  fifty-third  de- 
gree, to  the  table-land  of  Mexico."  He  is  amoDg  the  first 
arrivals  on  the  mountain,  and  appears  often  before  the  snows 
have  gone,  in  flocks,  with  other  birds,  on  the  northward  pas- 
sage. The  young  and  old  both  return  to  the  same  summer 
haunts  visited  in  previous  migrations. 

MERULA  Mustelina,  (Gm.)  Wood  thrush. — This  is  a 
plain  little  brown  bird,  beneath  white,  "  spotted  with  black- 
ish." He  is  solitary  and  shy,  retreating  to  the  depths  of  wil- 
dernesses, far  from  human  habitations  and  noise  of  towns.  His 
song  is  one  of  the  most  attractive  and  melodious  sounds  of 
the  forest,  and  is  frequently  the  only  voice  heard  in  the  deep, 
silent  expanse  of  the  woods.  "  The  prelude  to  this  song  re- 
sembles almost  the  double-tonguing  of  the  flute,  blended  with 
a  tinkling  shrill  and  solemn  warble,  which  re-echoes  from  his 
solitary  retreat  like  the  dirge  of  some  sad  recluse  who  shuns 
the  busy  haunts  of  life."  These  strange,  wild,  liquid  flutings, 
rising  from  the  depths  of  leafy  recesses,  possess  a  pecu- 
liar power  of  exciting  delicious  and  melancholy  emotions 
which,  once  having  thrilled  the  heart,  leave  forever  the 
memory  of  solitudes  sacred  to  thought  and  feeling,  of  re- 


THRUSH — WARBLERS,  339 

treats  where  beauty,  overshadowed  by  gloom,  inspires  awe, 
and  has  become  holy,  while  nature,  from  her  tenderest 
depths,  breathes  a  touching  sob  of  that  "  melody  which  is 
the  voice  of  the  universe,  whereby  it  proclaims  its  scheme 
and  inmost  essence."  The  wood  thrush  inhabits  the  con- 
tinent from  Hudson's  Bay  to  Florida.  It  arrives  at  the 
mountain  early  in  April,  and  migrates  in  October. 

MERULA  Minor,  (Gm.)  Little  Hermit  Thrush. — The 
hermit  is  "olive-brown  on  back,  with  rufus  tail,  beneath 
brownish- white,  with  dusky  spots,"  and  is  a  shy,  wild  little 
bird,  with  some  of  the  habits  of  the  wood  thrush,  and  full  of 
sweetest  music.  It  affects  also  dark,  solitary  places,  where 
its  melodious  notes,  in  "  silver  cadence,"  often  mingle  with 
those  of  the  wood  thrush.  Range,  New  Hampshire  to 
Florida.  It  remains  but  a  short  time  on  the  mountain. 

MERULA  Wilsonii,  (Bonap.)  Wilson's  thrush,  or  Veery. 
"  Tawny -brown,  beneath  whitish,  dusky  spots  on  throat,  tail 
short."  This  thrush  has  many  habits  in  common  with  the 
wood  and  hermit  thrushes,  coming  to  the  mountain  the 
latter  part  of  April,  and  leaving  in  October.  His  notes  are 
singular  and  striking,  monotonous  and  quaint,  but  frequently 
truly  musical. 

SEIURUS  Noveboracensis,  (Nutt.)  New  York  thrush. — 
Rarely  seen  in  Pennsylvania  except  as  a  wanderer  to  more 
northern  or  southern  regions.  This  bird  is  peculiar  and  in- 
teresting in  its  habits,  which  are  aquatic. 

SEIURUS  Aurocapillus,  (Wilson.)  Golden-crowned  thrush, 
or  oven  bird. — This  bird  is  remarkable  for  its  oven-shaped 
nest  and  strange  habits. 

WARBLERS. 

SYLVIA,  (Lath.)  This  genus  has  many  species  widely  ex- 
tended. They  are  small,  sprightly  birds,  perpetually  busy 
in  pursuit  of  the  insect  prey  on  which  they  live.  They  ap- 
proach in  their  habits  several  other  families  of  birds  with  which 
they  are  really  allied.  Some  of  them  live  almost  entirely  on 


340  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

berries  part  of  the  year,  but  their  general  food  is  insects. 
Of  this  genus,  Cassin  remarks :  "  Of  the  smaller  birds  of 
North  America,  no  group  exceeds  that  of  the  warblers,  in 
variety  and  richness  of  color.  It  is,  too,  one  of  the  largest 
of  the  groups  of  our  birds,  embracing  not  less  than  forty 
species,  besides  several  which  are  South  American  "  They 
are  highly  musical  birds,  and  are  somewhat  allied  to  fly- 
catchers, vireos,  thrushes,  saxicolas,  and  wrens.  The  nightin- 
gale and  robin  red-breast  of  the  Old  World  belong  to  this 
party  of  vocalists. 

SYLVICOLA  Coronata,  (Wilson.)  Yellow-crowned  warbler. 
This  species  arrives  here  in  the  end  of  April,  proceeding 
north. 

SYLVICOLA  (Estiva,  (Lath.)  Summer  yellow-bird,  or 
warbler. — This  is  a  handsome  bird,  ranging  from  the  arctic 
circles  to  Florida.  It  arrives  in  Pennsylvania  in  April,  and 
returns  south  at  the  end  of  September. 

SYLVICOLA  Maculosa,  (Lath.)  The  spotted  warbler. — 
Breeds  far  north  at  Hudson's  Bay,  and  is  only  seen  a  short 
time  as  a  traveler. 

SYLVICOLA  Virens,  (Lath.)  Black-throated  green  war- 
bler.— This  sylvicola  sometimes  stays  the  season  on  the 
mountain,  but  is  a  rare  bird.  It  comes  in  April  and  leaves 
in  October. 

SYLVICOLA  Blackburnia3.  Blackburnian  warbler. — A  rare 
species,  and  only  a  visitor,  on  its  way  to  boreal  regions. 
It  is  a  beautiful  bird. 

SYLVICOLA  Icterocephala,  (Lath.)  Chestnut-sided  war- 
bler.— Only  seen  on  the  mountain  for  awhile,  on  its  north- 
ern journey.  It  is  said,  however,  by  Nuttall,  to  rear  young 
in  the  Northern  States. 

SYLVICOLA  Striata,  (Lath.)  Black-poll  warbler. — Some- 
times arrives  in  the  middle  of  April,  remaining  but  a  short 
time.  It  extends  its  migrations  to  Newfoundland. 

MNIOTILTA  Yaria,  (Lath.)  Black  and  white  creeper. — 
Perhaps  only  rests  on  its  journey,  as  its  nest  has  not  been 
seen.  It  is  a  remarkable  and  interesting  bird. 


WARBLERS — WRENS.  341 

SYLVICOLA  Pinus,  (Lath.)  Pine  warbler. — Arrives  at  the 
mountain  early  in  April ;  color,  bright-yellow,  tinged  with 
green  beneath,  yellow  wings,  with  whitish  bands.  It  is  a 
quick,  sprightly  little  eater  of  insects,  is  found  in  the  pine 
forests,  and  is  musical  to  a  certain  extent,  withal  an  interest- 
ing bird. 

PARULA  Americana,  (Lath.)  Parti-colored  warbler. — 
Perhaps  only  a  visitor.  It  winters  at  St.  Domingo  and 
Porto  Rico. 

TRICHAS  Agilis,  (Wilson.)  Connecticut  warbler. — Only 
a  visitor. 

TRICHAS  Marilandica,  (Lath.)  Maryland  yellow-throat. — 
Comes  to  the  mountain  early  in  April  and  nests.  It  is  a 
sprightly  little  yellow-olive  bird,  with  black  patch  about  eye 
and  side  of  head. 

SYLVICOLA  Canadensis,  (Bon.)  Pine-swamp  warbler. — 
Frequents  hemlock  swamps. 

SYLVICOLA  Azurea,  (Steph.)  Ccerulean  warbler. — An 
occasional  visitor. 

HELEN^A  Solitaria,  (Wilson.)  Blue-winged  yellow  war- 
bler.— Arrives  on  the  mountain  at  end  of  April,  retires  to 
Tropical  America  in  autumn ;  remarkable  for  its  peculiar 
nest. 

The  following  species  of  the  old  genus  sylvia  are  fre- 
quently seen  on  the  mountain,  namely,  Vermivora,  Worm- 
eating  Warbler;  Wilsonii,  Green  Black-capped  Warbler; 
Sphagnosa,  Swamp  Warbler;  Philadelphia,  or  Mourning 
Warbler ;  and  Parus,  or  Hemlock  Warbler. 

REGULTJS,   CRESTED   WRENS. 

These  are  small  birds,  hardy  and  active,  enduring  winter, 
but  migrating  as  the  cold  increases.  They  penetrate  the 
arctic  spaces,  living  on  insects,  and  having  the  style  and  ac- 
tion of  the  titmouse.  They  inhabit  both  continents,  and 
are  allied  to  the  sylvias. 

REGULUS  Calendulus,  (Steph.)  Ruby-crowned  wren. — A 
29* 


342  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

handsome  little  bird ;  only  a  visitor  on  his  journey  to  Hud- 
son's Bay  and  Greenland. 

REGULUS  Cristatus,  (Yieill.)  Gold-crested  wren. — Comes 
south  early  in  April  on  its  journey  far  north.  Sometimes 
seen  in  winter  along  the  sides  of  the  mountain. 

WEENS,  TROGLODYTES. 

These  are  small  quick-motioned  musical  birds,  hopping 
and  darting  about  near  the  ground,  through  log  heaps, 
brush  piles,  holes,  and  crannies,  after  their  prey  of  spiders, 
worms,  and  bugs.  They  have  rapid  and  agreeable  note§; 
and  are  general  favorites. 

TROGLODYTES  Fulvus,  (Bon.)  House  wren. — This  per- 
petual-motion, this  capricious  atom  of  a  bird,  is  well  known 
to  all.  It  has  the  general  habits  of  the  family,  and  may  be 
seen  darting  about  with  such  restless  activity  that  the  eye 
can  scarcely  follow  its  motions  at  all.  Log  piles,  board  piles, 
thick  bushes,  even  stone  heaps,  he  shoots  through  in  every 
direction,  his  little  saucily-cocked  tail  always  in  the  same 
defiant  attitude.  Notes  agreeable ;  habits  and  spiritual 
demonstrations  interesting.  Comes  to  the  mountain  in 
May,  and  leaves  in  October. 

TROGLODYTES  Bewickii,  (Aud.)  Bewick's  wren. — This 
comely  little  bird  is  found  in  the  Central  Alleghany  in  the 
summer. 

TROGLODYTES  Hyemalis,  (Yieill.)  Common,  or  winter 
wren. — This  wren  sometimes  winters  on  the  Alleghany,  and, 
as  Audubon  has  remarked,  breeds  in  the  pine  forests.  It  is  a 
sprightly  little  bird,  with  an  agreeable  warble. 

TROGLODYTES  Palustris,  (Bon.)  Marsh  wren. — This  spe- 
cies is  found  about  sedgy  and  willowy  marsh  spots.  It 
comes  in  April,  and  leaves  the  last  of  September. 

TROGLODYTES  Ludovicianus,  (Bon.)  Great  Carolina,  or 
mocking  wren. — This  is  the  most  illustrious  of  the  wrens. 
A  musician,  a  mimic,  a  busy,  courageous  worker,  he  is  a 
special  favorite  of  all  bird  lovers.  His  powers  are  wonder- 


FINCHES.  343 

ful  beyond  description,  and  there  seems  to  be  no  end  to  the 
fanciful  stories  about  him.  He  is  an  occasional  visitor. 

SIALIA  Wilsonii,  (Swain.)  Blue-bird.  —  This  universal 
favorite  is  continent  wide  in  its  range.  He  is  a  hardy  bird, 
breeding  from  Labrador  to  Mexico.  A  constant  friend  of 
man,  his  presence  is  always  hailed  with  delight,  as  he  brings 
with  him  thoughts  of  the  summer,  butterflies,  and  flowers, 
and  all  the  bright,  vernal  visions  of  country  life.  A  beauti- 
ful, gentle  creature,  everybody  loves  the  blue-bird. 

ANTHUS  Spinoletta,  (Bon.)  Brown  lark. — This  is  a  bird 
of  passage  in  Pennsylvania,  and  rarely  seen  on  the  moun- 
tain. 

EMBERIZA  Nivalis,  (Linn.)  The  Snow-bunting  is  a  bird 
of  high  arctic  regions,  and  sometimes  in  his  southern  winter- 
rovings  visits  the  mountain. 

EMBERIZA  Americana,  (Wilson.)  Black-throated  bunt- 
ing.— This  bunting  sometimes  comes  to  the  mountain  in  May, 
leaving  for  Mexico  in  September. 

PYRANGA  Rubra,  (Linn.)  Scarlet  tanager. — This  brilliant 
blood-red  bird,  with  black  wings,  frequently  startles  the  ex- 
plorer of  the  mountain  forests  with  the  vivid  flash  of  his 
crimson  plumage.  He  passes  his  winters  in  Tropical 
America,  coming  to  Pennsylvania  the  first  part  of  May,  and 
retiring  south  the  first  of  September.  A  gaudy  and  distin- 
guished bird,  he  looks  like  a  tropical  product.  His  bio- 
graphers endow  him  with  the  rare  and  transcendent  elements 
of  tenderness  in  love,  and  fidelity  in  affection. 

FINCHES. 

This  is  a  numerous  family.  They  live  on  seeds  and  grain ; 
sometimes  on  insects.  Many  of  the  species  are  musical  and 
easily  domesticated. 

SPIZA  Cyanea,  (Wilson.)  The  Indigo-bird  is  a  small  but 
bright  and  beautiful  species.  He  passes  his  winters  in  Tro- 
pical America,  and  visits  the  mountain  in  the  middle  of  May, 
retiring  in  September.  He  is  a  regular  charm,  styled  by  the 


344  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

venerable  Nuttall,  "the  azure  celestial  musician."    As  his 
name  indicates,  he  is  a  fine  blue  color,  with  greenish  tinges. 

ZONOTRICHIA  Pennsylvanica,  (Lath.)  White  -  throated 
sparrow. — This  is  a  large  and  handsome  sparrow,  whose 
natal  region  is  the  north.  He  visits  the  Alleghany  in  the 
winter  months,  going  sometimes  a  little  farther  south  in 
very  inclement  weather. 

PASSERELLA  Graminea,  (Gm.)  Grass  finch. — This  is  a 
plain  gray  and  brownish  bird,  a  regular  inhabitant  of  the 
mountain.  It  is  very  common  around  orchards  and  fields. 

ZONOTRICHIA  Melodia,  (Wilson.)  The  song  sparrow. 
—The  song  sparrow  is  common,  familiar,  and  generally 
numerous.  It  arrives  with  the  blue-bird  in  March,  and  is 
soon  heard  piping  his  agreeable  but  somewhat  peculiar 
strain.  He  leaves  late  in  the  season,  only  retiring  when 
compelled  by  the  storms  of  winter. 

PASSERCULUS  Savanna,  (Wilson.)  Savanna  sparrow. — 
This  is  not  so  abundant  as  the  melodia.  It  has  some  plea- 
sant notes,  and  the  general  habits  of  the  sparrows.  Times 
of  migration,  April  and  November. 

JUNCO  Nivalis,  (Linn.)  Common  snow-bird. — This  spe- 
cies is  said  to  be  common  to  both  continents.  It  is  a  very 
hardy  bird,  braving  the  coldest  Alleghany  storms,  large 
flocks  appearing,  with  vivacious  movements,  in  the  midst  of 
roaring  winds  and  drifting  snows.  Large  numbers  nest  and 
permanently  occupy  the  mountain. 

S^IZELLA  Canadensis,  (Lath.)  The  tree  sparrow  is  a 
winter  bird,  his  natal  home  being  in  the  region  of  Hudson's 
Bay.  He  comes  to  the  mountain  with  the  snow-bird, 
retiring  to  his  far  northern  summer  range  early  in  the 
spring. 

SPIZELLA  Socialis,  (Wilson.)  Chipping  sparrow. — This 
plain  little  bird  is  almost  domestic,  certainly  social,  as  his 
name  indicates.  It  is  a  great  pet  with  children,  who  feed  it 
on  door-sills  and  porches.  Wide  geographic  range. 

SPIZELLA  Juncorum,  (Nutt.)  Field,  or  rush  sparrow,  is 
a  small  species  like  the  chipping  sparrow,  but  is  wild  and 


FINCHES.  345 

shy.  It  comes  to  the  mountain  in  April,  and  leaves  in 
October. 

CHRYSOMITRIS  Tristis,  (Linn.,  Wilson.)  Yellow-bird,  or 
American  goldfinch.  —  The  goldfinch  inhabits  the  whole 
United  States,  and  goes  as  far  north  as  the  forty-ninth 
parallel.  It  is  common,  and  generally  gregarious,  being  fre- 
quently found  in  migrating  crowds  of  other  sparrows.  Its 
habits  are  rather  peculiar,  being  a  vagrant  and  wanderer, 
with  erratic  movements. 

PIPILO  Erythrophthalma,  (Linn.)  The  ground-robin,  or 
Tow-wee  finch,  inhabits  wild,  dry,  vacant  spaces,  especially 
barren  tracts  covered  by  bushes.  He  stays  near  the  ground, 
hopping  around,  and  scratching  among  the  leaves,  uttering 
all  the  time  his  monotonous  notes,  "  tow-ee,  tow-ee,"  or,  as 
frequently  pronounced,  "che-wink,  che-wink." 

CARDINALIS  Yirginianus,  (Bon.)  This  is  the  cardinal 
grosbeak,  or  red-bird,  a  royal  prince  of  the  finch  family. 
His  splendid  form  is  sometimes  seen,  and  his  loud  whistle 
heard  for  a  time  in  the  mountain  woods.  His  general 
range  is  from  New  York  to  Florida,  having  a  taste  rather 
for  the  south.  His  visits  to  the  mountain  are  short,  although 
he  remains  nearly  the  entire  year  in  the  eastern  and  southern 
part  of  Pennsylvania. 

AMMODROMUS  Palustris,  (Lath.)  Swamp  sparrow. — This 
bird,  as  its  name  indicates,  is  somewhat  aquatic  in  its  habits, 
living  among  reeds,  rushes,  and  water-grasses.  Not  com- 
mon on  the  mountain. 

CHRYSOMITRIS  Pinus,  (Wilson.)  Pine  finch. —  This  is  a 
northern  species,  visiting  the  mountain  late  in  autumn,  and 
retiring  north  early  in  spring. 

PASSERELLA  Iliaca,  (Mer.)  Ferruginous  finch. — This  is 
a  handsome  finch,  larger  than  most  of  his  brethren,  and 
breeding  in  the  north.  He  is  a  cold-weather  visitor  of  the 
mountain. 

GUIRACA  Ludoviciana,  (Bon.)  Rose-breasted  grosbeak. 
This  is  a  large  and  beautiful  finch,  one  of  our  noblest-look- 
ing birds,  and  a  fine  songster.  He  is  a  frequent  visitor  of 


346  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

the  mountain,  and  may  breed  in  the  wilder  parts,  although 
Nuttall  says  "  it  is  rare  and  accidental  in  the  Atlantic  States." 
He  goes  as  far  north  as  forty-nine  degrees. 

CARPODACUS  Purpureus,  (Gm.)  Purple  finch,  or  Ameri- 
can linnet. — This  bright  and  sprightly  singer  is  found  in  the 
evergreen  woods  of  the  mountain,  coming  in  April  and 
leaving  for  the  south  in  September. 

CORYTHUS  Enucleator,  (Tern.)  Bullfinch. — This  is  a  hardy 
species,  dwelling  in  the  arctic  regions,  and  only  coming  as 
far  south  as  the  mountains  of  Pennsylvania  in  the  most  in- 
clement seasons.  It  is  a  fine  bird,  and  is  found  on  "  north- 
west coast  of  North  America,  Lapland,  Russia,  Siberia,  and 
Scottish  Highlands." 


CROSS-BILLS. 

The  cross-bills  are  northern  birds,  and  have  many  habits 
of  the  bullfinches  and  grosbeaks.  They  frequent  the  forests 
of  pines  and  firs,  feeding  on  the  seeds  of  those  trees,  and 
other  trees  and  shrubs. 

LOXIA  Americana,  common  cross-bill. — This  bird  is  found 
from  Pennsylvania  to  Greenland,  but  inhabits  and  breeds 
generally  in  the  arctic  regions.  It  visits  the  pine  woods  of 
the  Alleghany  from  September  to  April. 

LOXIA  Leucoptera,  white-winged  cross-bill. — This  is  a 
beautiful  bird;  habits  same  as  Americana.  Nuttall  sug- 
gests that  it  may  breed  on  the  mountains  of  Pennsylvania. 

CUCKOOS. 

COCCYZUS  Americanus,  (Bon.)  Yellow-billed  cuckoo,  or 
the  rain-crow. — The  American  cuckoo  comes  to  the  moun- 
tain in  April,  leaving  for  Louisiana  and  Mexico  in  Sep- 
tember. His  strange  notes  may  be  heard  often  from  the 
shady  recesses  and  secluded  thickets  in  which  he  delights 
to  secrete  himself.  This  bird  is  remarkable  for  certain 
peculiar  parasitic  habits.  It  is  a  constant  resident  in 


WOODPECKERS.  347 

Southern  States,  but  has  a  geographic  range  from  Mexico 
to  Labrador  and  Columbia  River. 

COCCYZUS  Erythrophthalmus,  (Wilson.)  Black -billed 
cuckoo. — This  species  is  closely  related  to  the  yellow-billed. 
It  is  permanent  in  the  Southern  States,  having,  however,  a 
range  from  Texas  to  Labrador.  It  comes  to  the  Alleghany 
in  May  and  leaves  in  September. 


WOODPECKERS. 

Pious,  (Linn.)  This  is  a  family  of  regular  climbers,  com- 
posed of  shy,  rough,  unmusical  birds,  living  on  the  larvae  of 
insects,  which  they  obtain  from  decayed  bark  and  wood,  also 
eating  berries,  etc.  Some  of  them  are  peculiar  birds,  all  are 
useful  as  destroyers  of  noxious  worms  and  insects. 

COLAPTES  Auratus,  (Linn.,  Wil.)  Flicker,  or  golden- 
winged  woodpecker. — This  is  a  handsome  and  common  spe- 
cies, found  all  over  the  continent,  from  25°  to  63°  north 
latitude.  It  comes  to  the  mountain  in  April  and  leaves  in 
October.  According  to  Dekay,  "  it  sometimes  remains  in 
New  York  all  the  year."  It  is  a  useful  bird,  with  very  un- 
savory flesh,  which  fact  leaves  the  fowler  without  excuse  for 
the  common  practice  of  shooting  it  as  a  game  bird. 

Pious  Pileatus,  (Linn.,  Wil.)  Pileated  woodpecker,  or 
log-cock. — This  is  the  largest  and  most  imposing  of  the 
woodpeckers  that  visit  the  mountain.  Dekay  gives  him  a 
range  from  Texas  to  the  sixty-third  parallel.  He  remains 
all  the  year  in  the  "United  States,  and  although  said  to  be  an 
annual  resident  of  Pennsylvania,  and  really  a  common  bird 
in  the  hidden  forests  of  the  mountain,  he  is  not  often  visible 
in  the  winter.  This  is  the  large,  well-known  black  wood- 
pecker, with  red  crest  and  mustache. 

MELANERPES  Erythrocephalus,  (Linn.,  Wil.)  Red-headed 
woodpecker. — The  commonest  of  his  tribe,  he  is  found  every 
place,  from  Mexico  to  the  fiftieth  parallel ;  arriving  on  the 
mountain  in  May,  and  departing  in  September.  He  is  so 


348  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

familiar  and  common  that  we  have  forgotten,  or  ceased  to 
remark,  that  he  is  really  a  beautiful  and  interesting  bird. 

Pious  Carolinensis,  (Linn.,  Wil.)  The  red-bellied  wood- 
pecker is  a  fine,  handsome  bird.  Range,  Florida  to  Canada, 
and  the  Island  of  Jamaica,  in  all  which  regions  it  breeds, 
making  partial  migrations  from  the  colder  parts.  It  is  a 
wild,  roving  species,  living  in  the  solitudes  of  the  woods. 
It  is  a  constant  resident  from  Texas  to  South  Carolina. 
Visible  on  the  mountain  from  May  until  November,  and 
occasionally  seen  in  the  winter. 

Pious  Yarius,  (Wilson.)  Yellow-bellied  woodpecker. — 
This  is  a  continental  species,  ranging  from  Mexico  to  sixty- 
first  parallel,  and  a  permanent  resident  from  Maryland, 
south.  Lives  like  the  rest,  on  worms,  insects,  and  berries, 
and  is  a  frequent  bird  on  the  mountain. 

Pious  Yillosus,  (Wilson.)  Hairy  woodpecker. — Range 
of  this  species,  from  Texas  to  sixty-third  parallel,  and  said, 
by  Dekay,  to  remain  all  the  year  in  New  York.  It  is  corn- 
on  the  mountain,  and  may  be  seen  pursuing  his  prey  in  snows 
and  the  storms  of  winter.  These  last  two  birds,  with  the  fol- 
lowing, are  called  on  the  mountain  "Spotted  Flickers." 

Pious  Pubescens,  (Wilson.)  Downy  woodpecker. — This 
is  the  smallest  species,  called  also  the  sap-sucker;  range, 
Texas  to  58°  north  latitude ;  said,  by  Dekay,  to  remain  in 
New  York  all  the  year.  May  be  seen  in  coldest  weather  on 
the  mountain,  busy  in  pursuit  of  food.  Nests  in  May. 

The  Three-toed  Woodpecker  (Picus  tridactylus)  was  seen 
by  Audubon  on  the  Pokono  Mountain,  Pennsylvania.  It 
has  not  been  seen  on  the  Central  Alleghanies. 

TENUIROSTRES,  (Slender-billed  Birds.) 
This  order  is  related  to  many  of  the  woodpeckers  or 
climbing  zygodactili. 

NUT-HATCHES. 

SITTA  Carolinensis,  (Briss.)  White-breasted  American 
nut-hatch. — This  is  a  common  little  bird,  seen  creeping 
around  the  trees  in  all  directions  after  insects  and  worms. 


CREEPER — HUMMING-BIRD — KING-FISHER.        349 

He  is  a  permanent  resident  from  Hudson's  Bay  to  Mexico. 
In  the  winter,  hunger  drives  him  from  the  woods  into  the 
neighborhood  of  barns  and  houses. 

SITTA  Canadensis,  (Linn.,  Wil.)  The  red-bellied  nut-hatch 
comes  to  the  mountain  in  April,  returning  south  in  October. 
It  is  a  smaller  bird  than  the  white-breasted  nut-hatch,  and 
seems  to  be  wild  and  shy,  preferring  the  recesses  of  pine 
woods  as  a  residence. 

CREEPERS. 

CERTHIA  Americana,  (Linn.,  Wil.)  The  brown  creeper 
is  related  to  the  nut-hatchers,  is  a  climber,  nests  in  holes  in 
trees,  and  feeds  on  insects.  It  is  a  rare  bird  on  the  moun- 
tain as  elsewhere.  He  makes  extensive  wanderings,  like  the 
nut-hatch,  in  search  of  food. 

HUMMING-BIRDS. 

(Family  Anthomyzi,  Yieill,  Bon.) 

TROCHILUS  Colubris,  (Linn.)  Ruby-throated  humming- 
bird.— This  is  the  only  individual  of  the  genus  which  comes 
north.  It  is  an  exclusively  American  family,  and  very 
extensive  in  numbers,  there  being  some  three  hundred 
species  within  the  tropics.  Nature  seems  to  have  sported 
an  infinite  extravagance,  and  almost  exhausted  the  element 
of  variety,  in  this  group  of  birds.  Every  shape,  style,  tint, 
and  line,  every  conceivable  form  of  dress  and  ornament,  is 
found  in  this  exquisite  family  of  brilliant  eaters  of  nectar. 
The  ruby- throated  humming-bird  is  the  plainest  of  the 
genus,  although  he  is  considered  a  beautiful  little  bird.  It 
comes  to  the  mountain  in  May,  leaving  in  September, 
breeding  there  in  numbers. 

KING-FISHERS. 
HALCYON,  (Alcyones,  Tern.) 

CERYLE  Halcyon,  (Linn.,  Wil.)  Belted  king-fisher. — 
This  strange,  eccentric-looking  bird,  a  regular  angler,  comes 

30 


350  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

to  the  mountain  in  April,  departing  in  October.  His  range 
is  the  borders  of  fresh-water  streams,  from  Hudson's  Bay  to 
the  tropics.  His  style  of  capturing  his  finny  prey  is  an  in- 
teresting process,  being  altogether  an  exciting  feat. 


SWALLOW   TRIBE. 

(Chelidones,  Vieill.) 

HIRTJNDO  Purpurea,  (L.  Wilson.)  Purple  martin. — The 
purple  martin  arrives  about  the  middle  of  April,  leaving  in 
September.  This  beautiful  and  agile  eater  of  insects  is  a 
great  favorite,  having  almost  domestic  habits,  and  being  as- 
sociated in  the  thoughts  and  affections  of  men  with  the  pro- 
mises of  spring  and  the  enjoyments  of  summer. 

HIRUNDO  Rufa,  (Gm.)  The  barn  swallow  is  a  common 
species,  arriving  in  numbers  in  the  early  part  of  April,  leav- 
ing the  first  part  of  September.  Range,  from  latitude  50° 
to  tropics.  They  are  skimmers  of  the  wind,  taking  their  food 
on  the  wing,  the  air  being  their  proper  medium  of  exist- 
ence, as  of  the  whole  family. 

HIRUNDO  Lunifrons,  (Vieill.)  Cliff  swallow. — This  spe- 
cies, formerly  a  Western  bird,  now  extends  his  migrations 
over  the  Atlantic  and  Middle  States.  His  peculiar  jug-like 
nest  is  common  on  houses  and  barns  on  the  Alleghany.  He 
comes  with  the  other  swallows  and  leaves  with  them  ;  habits 
the  same. 

HIRUNDO  Bicolor,  (Yieill.)  White-bellied  swallow. — 
This  is  an  extensive  traveler,  continuing  his  journeys  from 
the  tropics  to  latitude  53°.  Comes  to  the  mountain  about 
the  middle  of  April  It  lives  about  houses,  and  is  a  familiar 
species. 

COTYLE  Riparia,  (Linn.,  Wil.)  The  sand  martin  is  not  a 
common  species  on  the  mountain.  It  is  found,  however,  along 
the  streams  on  both  sides.  Comes  in  April  and  leaves  in 
October. 


SWIFT — NIGHT-HAWK — PIGEON.  351 

SWIFTS. 

(Cypselus,  Illig.) 

CYPSELUS  Pelasgius,  (Tern.)  Chimney  swallow. — This 
bird  comes  in  April,  leaving  in  August.  It  is  a  common 
species,  breeding  in  chimneys  and  hollow  trees.  They 
are  seen  in  large  numbers  in  the  evening,  whirling  and 
circling  through  the  air  in  pursuit  of  their  prey,  which 
consists  of  winged  insects. 

NIGHT-HAWKS. 

ANTROSTOMUS  Yociferus,  (Wilson.)  Whip-poor-will. — 
The  melancholy  and  peculiar  voice  of  this  bird  of  the  night 
may  be  heard  in  all  the  wilder  parts  of  the  mountain.  He 
comes  in  April  and  leaves  in  September,  passing  his  winters 
in  Tropical  America.  They  are  said  to  migrate  as  far  north 
as  49°. 

CHORDEILES  Yirginianus,  (Briss.)  Night-hawk,  or  night- 
jar. Americanus,  (Wilson.) — This  bird  conies  north  in  April, 
leaving  the  mountain  in  August.  They  breed  from  the 
Southern  States  to  Hudson's  Bay.  Numbers  may  be  seen 
floating  around  through  the  air,  the  spots  of  white  on  their 
wings  being  visible  at  a  great  height,  and  the  whirring  sound 
of  their  large,  open,  bristly  mouths  being  heard  at  a  great 
distance,  as  they  dart  after  their  prey  of  winged  insects. 

PIGEON   TRIBE. 

(Columbini,  Illiger.) 

ECTOPISTES  Carolinensis,  (Linn.,  Wilson.)  Turtle-dove, 
(Carolina  pigeon.) — The  dove  is  a  constant  resident  south 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  remains  on  the  mountain  from  April 
until  October.  It  has  a  range  from  Mexico  to  Massachusetts, 
and  along  the  Pacific  to  Columbia  River.  It  is  a  sweet, 
gentle  bird,  beloved  by  all. 

ECTOPISTES    Migratoria,    (Linn.,   Wilson.)      Passenger 


352  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

pigeon. — Yast  flocks  of  this  pigeon  stop  on  the  mountain 
spring  and  fall.  They  are  said  to  breed,  from  latitude  32° 
to  51°,  around  Hudson's  Bay.  Their  range  is  the  continent, 
from  latitude  25°  to  62°.  Stragglers  remain  on  the  moun- 
tain through  the  summer  season,  but  do  not  breed  there. 
The  supply  of  food  seems  to  determine  the  movement  of  the 
myriads  of  these  birds,  which  sometimes  stream  through  the 
air,  and  not  the  ordinary  migrating  instinct  which  impels 
other  birds  to  travel.* 

COLUMBIA  Livia. — This  is  the  common  domestic  pigeon, 
an  introduced  species. 

GALLINACEOUS  BIRDS. 

(Gallinas,  Linn.,  etc.) 

MELEAGRIS  Gallopavo,  (Linn.,  Bon.)  Wild  turkey. — 
This  bird  is  rarely  seen  on  the  Alleghany,  although  abund- 
ant on  the  parallel  chains  of  the  Appalachian  range.  Its 
geographic  distribution  extends  from  Mexico  to  Canada. 
It  is  not  migratory  in  its  habits,  only  making  foraging  ex- 
peditions in  search  of  food.  This  magnificent  bird  is  pecu- 
liar to  North  America.  Of  the  turkey  tribe,  Cassin  remarks : 
"  Of  the  turkeys,  two  species  are  known,  the  most  numerous 
of  which  is  the  wild  turkey  of  North  America.  The  other, 
even  more  handsome  in  its  plumage  than  the  former,  has  as 
yet  only  been  found  in  Central  America,  and  is  known  as 
the  Honduras  Turkey.  It  is  by  no  means  well  established 
that  the  Domestic  Turkey  is  descended  from  the  wild  spe- 
cies of  North  America.  Its  origin  probably  has  not  yet 
been  disco vered."f 

*  "  Birds  essentially  tropical  are  known  to  migrate  to  different  dis- 
tances on  either  side  of  the  equator,  so  essentially  necessary  is  this 
wandering  habit  to  almost  all  the  feathered  tribe." — Nutt. 

f  "  Since  the  above  was  written,  the  distinguished  English  ornitho- 
logist, Mr.  Gould,  has  introduced  to  the  notice  of  naturalists  what 
he  considers  a  third  species,  under  the  name  of  Meleagris  Mexicana, 
and  which  he  regards  as  the  parent  stock  of  the  domesticated  turkey. 


PARTRIDGE— GROUSE.  353 

Of  other  gallinaceous  birds,  we  have, — 

PAVO  Oistatus,  (Linn.)  Peacock. — This  is  an  intro- 
duced bird,  and  belongs  originally  to  India. 

NUMIDA  Meleagris,  (Linn.)  Guinea  fowl. — This  is  an 
African  species,  long  introduced. 

GALLUS  Domesticus,  (Briss.)  Common  cock. — The  ori- 
ginal stock  of  this  bird  is  supposed  to  be  from  Java. 

PARTRIDGES. 

(Perdix,  Lath.) 

ORTYX  Yirginiana,  (Aud.)  American  partridge,  or  quail. 
The  partridge  is  not  abundant  on  the  Alleghany.  Having 
greater  fondness  for  fields  than  forests,  he  does  not  find  in 
that  range  an  attractive  residence.  Geographic  range,  from 
Honduras  to  Massachusetts. 

GROUSE. 

(Tetrao,  Linn.) 

TETRAO  Umbellus,  (Linn.,  Wilson  )  Ruffed  grouse. — The 
pheasant,  as  this  grouse  is  called  in  Pennsylvania,  is  abund- 
ant on  the  Alleghany,  where  it  breeds,  and  is  found  at  all 
seasons.  It  has  a  wide  range,  from  Mexico  to  the  fifty-sixth 
parallel,  and  across  the  continent  to  the  Pacific. 

TETRAO  Cupido,  (Wilson.)  Pinnated  grouse. — Of  this 
species,  Dekay  remarks  :  "  It  is  still  found  in  a  few  districts 
of  the  State,  (New  York,)  in  a  few  islands  on  the  coast  of 
Massachusetts,  and  in  the  mountainous  regions  of  Penn- 
sylvania." Said  by  Wilson  to  be  found,  in  his  day,  on  Po- 
cono  Pine  Hills,  Northampton  County,  Pennsylvania.  It 
has  not  been  seen  on  the  Alleghany  recently,  although  its 
range  is  said  to  be  from  Texas  to  Maine. 

It  differs,  however,  from  the  turkey  of  North  America  only  in  a  few 
slight  and  apparently  hardly  sufficient  characters  for  a  distinct  spe- 
cies, but  may  be,  as  supposed  by  Mr.  Gould,  the  parent  stock." — 
Note  from  Cassin. 

30* 


354  THE   MOUNTAIN. 


WATER    BIRDS. 


IT  has  been  already  stated  that  but  few  water  birds  either 
visit  or  reside  on  the  mountain.  The  reason  of  this  is  ob- 
vious, as  the  medium  in  which  the  aquatic  species  are  con- 
stituted to  exist  is,  to  a  great  extent,  wanting  there.  In  the 
valleys  east  and  west,  through  which  the  streams  pass  and 
their  waters  accumulate  in  pools,  there  are  a  number  of 
birds  of  this  division. 

GRALLATORES,  (Tern.)  Wading  birds. — These  are  birds 
with  long,  extremely  thin  legs,  stilting  them  up  in  an  ex- 
travagant and  ridiculous  manner  from  ludicrous  dispropor- 
tions in  length  and  extreme  tenuity ;  bills  cunningly-devised 
and  of  mechanical  structure  fitted  to  capture  their  prey, 
and  spiritual  endowments  relating  them  harmoniously  to 
their  habitats. 

CHARADRIUS  Yociferus,  (Linn.)  Kill-deer  plover. — This 
is  a  noisy  well-known  bird,  found  every  place  between  the 
twentieth  and  fifty-ninth  parallels,  breeding  from  Texas  to 
Massachusetts,  and  extending  his  range  as  far  west  as  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  He  has  nocturnal  habits,  feeding  at 
twilight,  and  flying  around  on  moonlight  nights  making 
great  noise  with  his  usual  cry  of  kill-deer. 

CHARADRIUS  Helveticus.  Black-bellied,  or  Swiss  plover. 
This  plover  breeds  in  Pennsylvania,  but  is  not  often  seen  on 
the  Alleghany.  Its  geographic  range  is  nearly  the  extent 
of  the  continent.  It  is  seen  on  the  eastern  and  western  sides 
of  the  mountain  in  the  cleared  portions,  and  in  neighbor- 
hood of  the  streams.  It  breeds,  according  to  Nuttall, 
"from  Pennsylvania  to  the  very  extremity  of  the  arctic 
regions." 


HERON — SANDPIPER.  355 

CHARADRIUS  Semipalmatus,  (Bon.)  The  semipalmated 
ring  plover  breeds  far  north,  being  seen  often  in  the  icy  re- 
gions of  Greenland.  It  is  a  small  species,  but  much  esteemed 
as  game,  being  well  flavored,  and  generally  fat.  It  passes 
along  the  mountain  in  April  north,  returning  south  in 
September. 

HERONS. 

ARDEA  Herodius,  (Linn.)  Great  blue  heron. — The  great 
heron  is  occasionally  seen  on  the  mountain,  but  is  rare.  It 
is  a  traveler,  and  only  seems  to  alight  in  the  swampy  spots 
and  around  the  rnill-dams  for  temporary  repose  or  food.  It 
is  a  large  bird,  being  four  feet  six  inches  in  length,  and  is 
quite  an  imposing  form,  either  on  the  wing  or  wading  in  the 
swamps,  and  are  voracious  and  stupid,  feeding  on  reptiles 
and  fish. 

ARDEA  Yirescens,  (Linn.)  Green  bittern. — This  is  the 
most  common  species  in  the  United  States.  It  comes  to 
Pennsylvania  early  in  April  and  leaves  in  October.  Range, 
from  Canada  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  visiting  Hayti  and 
Jamaica.  It  is  an  abundant  species  on  the  mountain  along 
all  the  streams  and  marshy  places. 


SANDPIPERS. 

(Tringa,  Briss.) 

These  are  wandering  and  gregarious  birds,  frequenting 
marshes,  rivers,  lakes,  and  living  on  larvae,  worms,  insects, 
small  shell-fish,  etc.  They  migrate  in  mixed  crowds,  breed 
generally  in  the  north,  are  wild  in  their  habits,  and  found  in 
every  part  of  the  world. 

TRINGA  Alpina,  (Linn.)  Dunlin,  red-backed  sandpiper. — 
The  Dunlin  has  a  wide  range,  even  the  northern  hemisphere. 
It  penetrates  the  arctic  circle,  and  breeds,  according  to  the 
ornithologists,  "  on  the  wintry  shores  of  Melville  Pen- 
insula." It  is  thus  a  regular  hyperborean,  only  stopping 


356  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

rarely  on  the  mountain  in  May  and  October,  on  its  journeys 
from  Greenland  to  Cayenne. 

TRINGA  Wilsonii,  (Nutt.)  Wilson's  sandpiper.  —  The 
little  "  Peeps"  is  a  northern  bird,  its  breeding  resorts  being 
within  the  arctic  circle.  It  passes  through  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania,  north  and  south,  in  May  and  October,  to  and 
from  its  natal  region.  It  is  a  well-known  sandpiper,  but  its 
visits  to  the  mountain  are  extremely  brief,  unless  from  strag- 
glers who  have  become  loafers. 

TRINGA  Solitaria. — The  green  swamp  tatler  comes  to  the 
Alleghany  early  in  May,  retiring  in  September.  According 
to  JSTuttall,  "  it  breeds  in  the  marshy  solitudes  of  the  moun- 
tains of  Virginia,  Kentucky,  and  Pennsylvania,  but  a  great 
part  of  the  species  proceeds  to  boreal  regions,  even  as  far 
as  the  extremity  of  the  continent. " 

TRINGA  Semipalmata.  Semipalmated  sandpiper. — This 
species  is  spread  over  the  continent  from  the  arctic  circle  to 
the  southern  extremity  and  West  Indies.  It  is  recognized  by 
its  familiar  notes  of  "  to-weet,  to-weet."  It  is  found  along  the 
streams  in  the  valleys  at  base  of  mountain. 

TOTANUS. — This  genus  is  close  to  the  snipe,  god- wit, 
tringa,  some  of  the  species  having  high  northern  range,  even 
to  the  69J°  of  parallel. 

TOTANUS  Semipalmatus,  (Tern.)  Willet.  —  This  is  a 
large  snipe,  and  said  to  inhabit  "  almost  every  part  of  the 
United  States,  from  the  coast  of  Florida  to  the  distant 
shores  and  saline  lakes  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Saskatchewan, 
up  to  the  fifty-sixth  parallel."  It  may  breed  on  the  moun- 
tain, but  is  rare. 

TOTANUS  Flavipes,  (Vieill,  Bon.)  Yellow-shanks  tatler. 
This  is  said  to  be  "the  most  common  bird  of  the  family  in 
America,  its  summer  residence,  or  breeding  station,  extend- 
ing from  the  Middle  States  to  the  northern  extremity  of  the 
continent."  It  rarely  appears  on  the  mountain,  notwith- 
standing this  statement.  This  is  no  doubt  accounted  for 
from  its  preferring  the  rivers,  marshes,  and  lakes  near  the 


TATLER — SNIPE.  357 

ocean.     It  has  been  seen  in  small  migratory  flocks  of  up- 
land plovers  and  peets. 

TOTANUS  Macularius,  (Tern.)  Spotted  tatler,  or  peet- 
weet. — This  is  the  most  common  and  familiar  species  of  the 
genus.  In  the  middle  of  April  it  is  found  on  all  the  shores 
of  the  rivers  of  Pennsylvania,  leaving  in  October.  It  breeds 
in  the  "  Middle  States  and  to  the  confines  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence," and  does  not  penetrate  remote  frigid  regions.  It 
wanders  from  the  sea  into  the  remotest  interior,  however. 
It  is  well  known  by  the  peculiar  balancing  of  its  body  and 
tilting  of  its  tail,  and  its  notes  of  "weet,  weet,  weet." 

TOTANUS  Bartramius,  (Linn.)  Bartram's  tatler.  It  is 
called  also  upland  plover,  and  "breeds  from  Pennsylvania 
to  the  fur  countries  of  Upper  Canada."  It  is  not  abundant 
on  the  mountain,  although  common  in  other  places.  It  comes 
in  May  and  goes  in  September. 

SCOLOPAX  Wilsonii. — The  range  of  this  snipe  is  from 
Hudson's  Bay  to  Cayenne,  numbers  wintering  in  the  South- 
ern States.  It  comes  north  in  March  and  lingers  until  De- 
cember. As  a  game  bird  it  has  exquisite  flavor,  and  is  in 
great  demand  among  sportsmen.  It  has  nocturnal  habits, 
is  shy,  wary,  and  not  easily  taken.  Food,  like  others  of  this 
order  of  birds,  worms,  insects,  larvae,  which  are  obtained  by 
boring  in  the  mud  with  its  long  bill.  This  is  the  bird  which 
is  supposed  by  some  ornithologists  to  make  a  strange  and 
peculiar  sound,  sometimes  heard  late  in  the  evening  in  the 
regions  it  frequents.  This  noise  is  variously  represented  by 
those  who  attempt  to  describe  it,  as  a  "whistling,"  "flicker- 
ing," "singular,  tremulous  murmuring,"  "humming,  some- 
what wailing,"  "whirring,  quailing"  sound,  and  is  produced 
by  the  bird  as  it  mounts  in  gyratory  ascent  through  the  air 
in  the  approaching  shades  of  the  evening  twilight.  It  is 
generally  invisible  when  making  the  sound,  which  is  sup- 
posed to  be  produced  by  the  wings,  also  by  an  "  undulatory 
motion  of  air  in  the  throat,"  etc.  From  the  circumstance 
that  the  bird  is  generally  invisible  when  the  sound  is  made, 
it  has  been  enveloped  in  mystery,  even  mixed  with  supersti- 


358  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

tion.  It  is  heard  frequently  on  the  mountain,  although  the 
bird  is  not  abundant  here,  and  is  said  to  be  made  only  during 
the  pairing  season.  It  is  generally  found  in  pairs  or  small 
parties,  and  is  nearly  allied  to  the  European  snipe. 

RUSTICOLA  Minor,  (Nutt)  American  woodcock. — The 
lesser  woodcock  is  confined  to  the  south  side  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence, breeding  in  the  Middle  States,  which  it  leaves  in  the 
winter,  although  it  is  said  to  winter  sometimes  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, where  it  arrives  in  March.  It  closely  resembles  the 
European  woodcock,  and  has  also,  like  Wilson's  snipe,  noc- 
turnal habits,  and  is  much  esteemed  as  a  game  bird,  its  flesh 
possessing  extreme  delicacy,  and  the  finest  flavor.  It  is  said, 
by  some  of  the  ornithologists,  to  possess  notes  that  are  mu- 
sical, and  has  the  same  habit  as  Wilson's  snipe  during  incu- 
bation, of  mounting  up  in  a  spiral  whirl  through  the  air, 
and  making  the  whistling  or  whirring  noise  generally  attri- 
buted to  Wilson's  snipe.  Do  both  birds  produce  this  sound  ? 
The  woodcock  most  certainly  does.  It  is  not  abundant  on 
the  mountain. 

PINNATIPEDES. 

(Lobe-footed  Birds.) 

FULICA  Americana,  (Lath.)  Coot. — The  American  coot 
is  said  to  "  dwell  and  breed  in  every  part  of  the  North 
American  continent,  over  a  range  of  probably  more  than 
fifty  degrees  of  latitude."  It  is  occasionally  seen  on  the 
mountain  as  a  traveler  in  spring  and  fall,  but  does  not  re- 
main there  during  the  summer. 

GREBES. 

(Podiceps,  Lath.) 

PODICEPS  Cornutus,  (Lath.)  The  Dobchick,  or  dipper, 
like  the  rest  of  his  family,  is  a  far  northern  bird,  breeding 
in  the  regions  about  Hudson's  Bay.  This  grebe  is  some- 
times found  resting  for  a  time  in  the  mill-dams  and  streams 


GEESE — SWAN.  359 

of  the  mountain  in  its  journeys  north  and  south.  Common 
in  Europe  and  Asia. 

PODICEPS  Carolinensis,  (Lath.)  Pied-bill  dobchick. — This 
is  an  American  species  exclusively.  It  is  said  to  be  the 
"commonest  species  in  the  United  States."  It  is  only  seen 
here  on  its  journeys  north  and  south,  to  and  from  its  breed- 
ing region  in  the  far  north. 

PODICEPS  Minor,  (Lath.)  Little  grebe,  or  dobchick. — 
This  is  the  smallest  of  the  grebes,  and  said  to  be  "  common 
to  the  colder  parts  of  both  continents,  having  been  seen 
around  Hudson's  Bay,  though  hitherto  unknown  even  as  a 
visitor  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States."  This  is  cer- 
tainly a  mistake,  as  stragglers  have  been  seen  on  the  Alle- 
ghany,  and  captured  in  ponds. 


GEESE. 
(Anser,  Briss.) 

ANSER  Canadensis,  (Vieill.)  Canada  goose. — This  goose 
is  a  bird  of  passage  only  in  the  United  States.  It  breeds 
between  50°  and  67°  north  latitude.  The  breeding  range 
of  this  goose  is  said  to  extend  through  thirty  degrees. 
The  great  rallying  regions  of  the  north  are  the  shores  of 
Hudson's  Bay.  It  sometimes  alights  on  the  ponds  and  dams 
of  the  mountain  in  its  vernal  and  autumnal  flights. 

ANSER  Cinereus,  (Meyer.)  This  is  the  common  or  do- 
mestic goose,  introduced  from  Europe. 

SWAN. 

CYGNUS  Americanus.— -The  Swan  visits  the  arctic  regions 
for  the  purpose  of  executing  the  great  function  of  reproduc- 
tion, in  "  the  short  but  brilliant  summers  which  there  pre- 
vail," passing  over  Pennsylvania  early  in  spring  and  late  in 
the  fall,  on  its  return  south.  It  sometimes  rests  on  ponds 
and  streams  for  a  short  time  on  its  journeys. 


THE   MOUNTAIN. 

DUCKS. 
(Anas,  Linn.) 

ANAS  Boschas,  (Rich.)  Common  duck,  or  mallard. — This 
duck,  the  original  of  the  domestic  species,  has  a  range  from 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  sixty-eighth  parallel,  and  is  said 
to  breed  as  far  south  as  Pennsylvania.  It  is  found  also  in 
many  parts  of  Europe. 

ANAS  Discors,  (Linn.)  Blue-winged  teal. — This  duck 
passes  the  mountains  of  Pennsylvania  in  April,  northward 
bound,  returning  south  late  in  September.  Range,  from 
Guiana  and  West  Indies  to  fifty-eighth  parallel.  These  ob- 
servations will  also  apply  to  the  Buffel  head. 

ANAS  Sponsa,  (Linn.)  The  Bride,  or  summer  duck. — A 
species  peculiar  to  America,  and  a  constant  resident  in  the 
United  States.  Range,  45°  north  latitude  to  Mexico  and 
Antilles.  This  is  the  most  beautiful  of  the  ducks  ;  indeed, 
few  of  the  whole  feathered  tribe  are  so  elaborately  and  ex- 
quisitely ornamented  as  this  bird. 

COLYMBUS  Glacialis,  (Linn.)  Loon. — This  large  water 
bird  has  also  a  northern  range.  It  stops  on  the  mountain 
in  its  migrations,  and  sometimes  remains  for  several  days, 
slily  slipping  around  the  mill-dams  and  ponds.  It  is  a  hand- 
some bird,  and  has  a  voice  which  is  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able sounds  in  nature. 


REPTILES.  361 


CLASS  III.— BEPTILIA. 

ORDER  I. — TESTUDINATA,  (Turtles.) 

THE  order  of  Chelonian  reptiles  has  been  a  troublesome 
chapter  in  the  herpetology  of  North  America.  An  elabo- 
rated synonymy  of  genera  and  species,  with  a  history  of  the 
same  in  this,  and  many  other  departments  of  natural  science, 
would  be  literary  and  scientific  curiosities. 

Is  the  magnificent  monograph  of  Louis  Agassiz  the  ar- 
dently hoped  for  finality  on  this  subject,  and  is  the  student 
of  the  testudinata  henceforward  to  have  cleared  fields,  and 
beaten  paths,  and  to  forget  immediately  agonizing  columns 
of  effete  synonyms,  monuments  of  the  struggles  of  ambi- 
tious hunters  of  new  species,  and  rejoice  over  the  abso- 
lute fixation  forever  of  generic  and  specific  forms  ?  As  the 
learned  professor  has  brought  the  old  "  order  into  doubt,"  it 
is  but  reasonable  to  expect,  that  after  a  profound  and  laborious 
exploration  of  the  whole  ground,  with  an  innumerable  me- 
nagerie of  living  turtles,  already  drilled  and  catalogued  by 
an  illustrious  group  of  scientific  predecessors,  together  with 
the  assistance  of  the  whole  contemporary  lay  or  uncanonical 
world,  he  shall  surely  arrange  it  that  "  chaos  shall  never 
come  again." 

The  classification  of  the  "  Contributions"  will  no  doubt 
be  safe  for  cataloguing  the  few  chelonians  of  the  mountain 
for  the  present. 

The  Alleghany  in  Pennsylvania  is  embraced  within  Agas- 
siz's  northeastern  division  of  the  chelonian  faunae  of  North 
America.  This  extends  northeast  beyond  the  forty-fifth 
isotherm,  west  to  Lake  Erie,  and  south  to  North  Carolina, 
being  protracted  "  along  the  Alleghanies  even  as  far  south 
as  Georgia."  According  to  Agassiz,  the  boundary  of  this 

31 


362  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

turtle  fauna  is  the  range  of  the  Chrysemys  picta,  and  the 
characteristic  genera  are  Nanemys,  Glyptemys,  Calemys, 
Ptychemys,  Cistudo,  Chelydra,  Ozotheca,  Thyrosternura, 
Malacoclemmys,  Emys,  and  Grapterays,  rare,  also  Aspido- 
nectes.  Several  families  of  testudinata  are  found  on  the 
mountain,  some  on  the  mountain  proper,  others  in  the 
streams  cutting  through  the  range  and  flowing  from  it. 
These  are  the  Try ony chid ae,  Chelydroidae,  Cinosternoidae, 
Emydoideee. 

TRYONYCHIDJE. 

This  family  is  aquatic  in  its  habits,  and  called  soft- 
shell  fresh-water  turtles.  They  inhabit  muddy-bottomed 
streams,  and  not  much  is  known  of  their  habits.  They  live 
upon  shell-fish,  the  larva?  of  insects,  and  other  substances 
which  they  find  in  the  mud.  In  mill-dams  and  stagnant  pools 
their  sharp-pointed  snouts  may  be  seen  above  the  surface  of 
the  water,  mere  dots,  the  animal  being  suspended  below. 
These  turtles  are  found  rarely  on  the  eastern  side  of  the 
mountain,  but  are  regular  inhabitants  of  the  slow,  tortuous, 
and  sluggish  streams  which  descend  from  the  broken  plateau 
of  the  western  side  of  the  range.  According  to  Holbrook, 
"the  flesh  of  some  of  these  turtles  is  the  most  delicate  food, 
surpassing  that  even  of  the  green  turtle."  Agassiz  enume- 
rates two  genera  of  Tryonichidse  that  are  found  in  the 
waters  of  Western  Pennsylvania.  * 

•*  "  The  soft-shelled  tortoise  was  not  generally  known  as  an  in- 
habitant of  New  York  until  after  the  completion  of  the  Erie  Canal, 
connecting  the  great  lakes  with  the  ocean.  Previous  to  that  period, 
it  was  supposed  to  belong  exclusively  to  Southern  and  Western  waters. 
The  description  given  above  was  taken,  several  years  since,  from  a 
specimen  obtained  in  the  Mohawk  River.  Subsequently,  several  in- 
dividuals, as  I  understand,  have  been  taken  from  the  Hudson  River, 
near  Albany." — DEKAY,  New  York  Fauna, 

According  to  Holbrook,  "  it  abounds  in  the  great  chain  of  Northern 
lakes,  both  above  and  below  Niagara  Falls,  and  is  common  in  the 
Mohawk,  a  tributary  of  the  Hudson  River,  but  is  not  found  in  any 
other  Atlantic  streams  for  a  distance  of  nearly  eight  hundred  miles." 


TURTLE.  363 

The  first,  AMYDA  Mutica,  (Fitz.,)  was  obtained  by  Baird 
from  the  Alleghany  River. 

ASPIDONECTES  Spinifer,  is  the  other  soft-shelled  turtle, 
which  is  said  to  be  "  common  in  the  western  part  of  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania." 

These  turtles  are  not  abundant  high  up  the  mountain 
streams,  but  in  the  Ohio  Tributaries  of  Western  Pennsyl- 
vania, where  there  are  large  dams  and  pools,  they  abound, 
and  are  sometimes  of  larger  size  than  represented  by 


Family  CHELYDROID^E. 

CHELYDRA  Serpentina,  (Schw.)  The  Suapping-turtle  fol- 
lows the  streams  of  the  mountain  to  a  great  height.  In 
saw-mill  dams,  even  on  small  runs,  he  grows  to  his  largest 
dimensions.  These  large  individuals  are  very  old,  as,  ac- 
cording to  Agassiz,  "specimens,  12  inches  long  by  9J  wide, 
are  thirty-eight  years  old,  and  a  specimen,  marked  forty- 
five  years  oldr  only  increased  an  inch  in  that  time."  High 
up  in  the  range  they  are  frequently  much  larger  than  this, 
and,  consequently,  must  be  patriarchs  of  the  race  whose 
longevity  no  doubt  has  been  insured  by  the  salubrity  of  their 
alpine  home.  They  are  hideous  in  their  form,  savage  in 
their  habits,  like  other  carnivorous  animals,  and  from  the 
ferocity  of  their  style  of  defence,  mode  of  attacking  their 
prey,  their  ugly  heads,  with  powerful  jaws  like  the  edges 
of  a  sharp-cutting  vice,  protruding  from  the  shield  of  a 
rough,  rocky  shell,  and  accompanied  by  a  long  spinous 
tail  like  that  of  the  alligator,  they  present  an  appearance  to 
the  last  degree  revolting.*  They  feed  upon  fish  and  water- 
rats,  young  ducks  and  geese,  attacking  even  full-grown  ducks 

"  Tliis  originally  Western  species  passed  from  St.  Peter's  Kiver  through 
Red  River  to  Lake  Winnipeg,  giving  a  passage  for  the  Trionyx  feror 
to  Lake  of  the  Woods ;  also,  the  Upper  Illinois  communicates  with 
the  waters  of  Lake  Michigan,  and  thus  reaches  the  chain  of  lakes 
that  open  into  the  St.  Lawrence  River." 

*  The  fights  of  these  reptiles  are  fierce  and  deadly,  often  pro- 
tracted for  hours. 


364  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

and  geese.  Instances  are  known  of  their  seizing  upon  the 
noses  of  mules  and  horses  that  stooped  to  drink  where  they 
were  concealed  watching  for  their  prey.  They  are  extremely 
tenacious  of  life,  and  are  endowed  with  such  intense  organic 
or  vegetative  vitality  that  the  heart,  dissected  from  the  body 
and  laid  upon  a  plate,  will  pulsate  for  a  day  and  a  half,  and 
the  decapitated  head  will  bite  for  several  hours  after  being 
separated  entirely  from  the  body.  This  reptile  is  eaten,  and 
considered  a  delicacy.  Its  range  is  the  eastern  side  of  the 
continent  from  Maine  to  Florida  and  Louisiana,  and  west 
to  the  Missouri  River. 

Family  CINOSTERNOIDJE. 

This  is  an  exclusively  aquatic  family.  They  are  small 
turtles,  according  to  Agassiz,  "the  average  size  of  the 
representatives  of  this  family  being  smaller  than  in  any  other 
family  of  the  testudinata."  They  are  fierce  and  wild,  living 
upon  animal  food.  Two  genera  are  found  on  the  mountain. 

Sub-Family  of  OZOTHECOIDJE. 

OZOTHECA  Odorata,  (Ag.)  Range,  from  New  England 
to  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  West  Florida,  Missouri,  and 
Louisiana.  Occurs  on  the  mountain. 

Sub-Family  of  CINOSTERNOID^E. 

THYROSTERNUM  Pennsylvanicum,  (Ag.)  This  species 
"  occurs  from  Pennsylvania  to  Florida,  and  westward  to 
Mississippi  Yalley."  Sometimes  seen  at  base  of  mountain. 


Family 

This  is  an  extensive  family,  including,  according  to  Agassiz, 
"  sixty  well-known  species,  and  presenting  the  broadest  ranges 
of  differences  in  habits,  size,  and  structure."  This  varied  or- 
ganization gives  a  wide  habitat.  Most  of  them  live  in  or 
near  water  in  pools  or  marshes,  or  on  the  edges  of  streams, 
being  part  of  the  time  in  the  water  and  part  on  land.  One 


TURTLES.  365 

genus  is  exclusively  terrestrial  in  its  habits.  The  size  of  the 
different  species  of  this  group  varies  from  fifteen  to  four 
inches  in  length,  the  largest  species  being  aquatic.  In  this 
family  the  "terrapenes,"  so  much  esteemed  as  articles  of 
food  and  luxury,  are  embraced.  Inoffensive  and  harmless, 
they  do  not  capture  their  prey,  and  only  show  combative 
elements  when  attacked.  They  live  on  animal  and  vegetable 
food,  the  terrestrial  species  feeding  on  vegetables  alone. 
"  They  lay  their  eggs  upon  dry  land  like  all  other  turtles, 
the  terrestrial  laying  the  fewest  eggs." 

PTYCHEMYS  Rugosus.  Found  at  eastern  base  of  moun- 
tain. 

Sub-Family  of  NECTEMYDOID^E. 

GRAPTEMYS  Geographica,  (Ag.)  Not  common  on  the 
mountain,  but  is  found  along  its  eastern  base,  and  is  said  to 
be  "  common  from  Pennsylvania  and  New  York  to  Michigan, 
Tennessee,  and- Arkansas." 

CHRYSEMYS  Picta,  (Gray.)  This  is  the  old  Emys  picta, 
painted  terrapene.  It  is  described  as  a  common  species  in 
every  part  of  the  geographic  fauna  of  which  its  range  is  the 
limit.  It  is  not  common  on  the  Alleghany,  but  very  abund- 
ant near  it.  It  is  a  beautiful  turtle,  and  generally  attracts 
attention  by  its  ornamental  box. 

Sub-Family  of  CLEMMYDOID^E. 

NANEMYS  Guttata,  (Ag.)  This  species  is  represented  to 
occur  in  New  England,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  North 
Carolina.  Not  abundant  on  the  Alleghany. 

CALEMYS  Muhlenbergii.  Muhlenberg's  terrapene  is  said 
to  be  "  entirely  limited  to  New  Jersey  and  the  eastern 
part  of  Pennsylvania."  (?) 

Sub-Family  of  CISTUDININ^E. 

CISTUDO  Yirginea.  North  American  box-turtle. — This 
species  of  box-turtle  is  found  on  the  highest  parts  of  the 
mountain,  and  is  as  common  on  the  lower  part  of  the  range 

31* 


366  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

as  elsewhere.     "  Range,  New  England,  west  to  Michigan, 
south  to  Carolinas."* 

ORDER  II. — SAURIA.     Family  AG AMIDES. 

TROPIDOLEPIS  IJndulatus. — The  brown  swift  is  the  only 
representative  of  this  order  on  the  mountain,  f  It  is  a  gray- 
ish-brown lizard,  beneath  greenish  and  white  ;  from  five  to 
eight  inches  long,  and  has  the  power  to  change  its  color.  It 
lives  on  insects,  frequenting  pine  woods ;  called  sometimes 
pine  lizard,  and  brown  scorpion.  It  is  quick  in  its  motions, 
moving  with  incredible  celerity,  and  is  an  ugly  creature,  but 
not  venomous.  Range,  from  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  43°  north 
latitude. 

ORDER  III. — OPHIDIA,  (Serpents.) 

The  Ophidian,  or  snake  tribe,  have  a  number  of  genera 
and  species  on  the  mountain.  In  Baird  and  Girard's  cata- 
logue of  well-ascertained  North  American  serpents  in  the 
Smithsonian  Institution,  thirteen  genera  and  eighteen  spe- 
cies are  recorded  as  belonging  to  Pennsylvania.  Many  of 

*  Agassiz  states  that  a  map  showing  the  geographical  distribution 
of  North  American  turtles  would  exhibit  '-the  whole  table-land  be- 
tween the  Sierra  Nevada  of  California  and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  as 
well  as  the  eastern  slope  of  the  latter,  down  to  the  great  American 
desert,  without  a  single  species  of  turtle  over  this  extensive  tract." 
He  continues :  "  It  would  be  a  mistake,  however,  to  infer,  from  this 
fact,  that  these  animals  are  excluded  from  mountainous  regions.  In 
the  range  of  the  Alleghanies  there  are  many  species  which  ascend  to 
the  height  of  several  thousand  feet,  and  among  those  that  reach  the 
greatest  height  are  Cistudo  Virginea,  Chelydra  serpentina,  and  a 
species  of  Aspidonectes,  probably  Asp.  nuchalis,  (Com.,  p.  406;)  but 
I  regret  that  I  am  unable  to  give  the  absolute  height  with  any  degree 
of  accuracy." — Contributions,  vol.  i.  p.  452. 

The  great  Central  Railroad  of  Pennsylvania  perforates  the  Alle- 
ghany  2200  feet  above  tide-water  level.  Several  species  are  found 
above  this  line  on  the  mountain,  as  the  Snapper,  the  Virginia  Box- 
turtle,  Ozotheca  odorata,  and  Chrysemys  picta. 

f  This  is  a  numerous  order  of  reptiles  in  the  torrid  zone,  there 
being  found  some  three  hundred  species. 


SNAKES.  367 

these  snakes  are  found  either  on  the  Alleghany,  or  near  the 
eastern  and  western  bases  of  that  mountain  within  the 
State. 

Family  I. — CROTALID^E.  Serpents  "with  poison  fangs  in 
front,  which  are  erectile,  and  few  teeth  in  upper  jaw.  A 
deep  pit  between  the  eye  and  nostril ;  tail  with  a  rattle."* 

CROTALUS  Horridus.f — This  is  the  banded,  or  common 
rattlesnake  of  the  mountain.  It  is  exceedingly  venomous  and 
malignant,  and  found  of  large  dimensions  on  that  range.  It  is 
somewhat  numerous  on  the  highest  knobs  and  ridges,  espe- 
cially on  their  southern  and  southeastern  slopes.  On  the 
northwestern  side  and  northern  slopes  it  is  not  often  seen. 
It  appears  to  avoid  the  cool  shades  and  moist  places  of  the 
deep  forests  of  the  western  declivity  and  table-lands,  even 
the  dense  laurel  thickets  in  which  it  is  so  much  dreaded.  On 
the  summits  of  the  highest  knobs  and  their  southern  slopes, 
where  the  rocks  and  earth  are  heated  by  the  sun,  and 
where  the  huckleberry,  blackberry,  and  grape  abound,  which 
attract  birds  and  other  small  animals,  their  regular  prey,  it 
makes  its  haunts,  and  lives  to  a  great  age.  Length,  fre- 
quently, more  than  four  feet. 

AGKISTRODON  Contortix.  Copperhead.  Tail  without  a 
rattle. — This  is  a  poisonous  serpent,  possessing  extremely 
dangerous  habits  and  qualities.  The  rattlesnake  is  a  regu- 
lar fiend,  occasionally,  perhaps  for  his  own  protection, 
giving  a  peculiar  style J  of  warning  on  the  approach  of 
any  animal  except  its  legitimate  prey,  a  caveat  which 
generally  secures  perfect  freedom  from  all  molesta- 
tion. The  copperhead,  on  the  contrary,  is  silent,  com- 
bative, and  vicious,  and  where  he  frequents  must  be  looked 

*  Baird  and  Girard. 

f  Major  Le  Conte  has  clearly  determined  this  to  be  the  Crotalus 
horridus,  and  not,  durissus.  (Vide  Proceedings  of  the  Academy  of 
Natural  Sciences,  vol.  vi.,  1852-53,  p.  415.) 

J  The  sound  of  his  rattle,  once  sprung  between  the  feet  of  the 
huntsman,  will  be  remembered  with  a  thrill  of  horror  for  the  rest  of 
his  life. 


368  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

for  with  extreme  vigilance,  or  his  death  stroke  may  be 
the  first  notice  of  his  presence.  But  few  individuals  of 
this  species  are  found  on  the  mountain,  fortunately  for  its 
inhabitants.  Like  the  rattlesnake,  he  obtains  possession  of 
his  prey  by  striking  it  with  his  erectile  poison  fangs,  waiting 
until  the  unfortunate  squirrel  or  bird  drops  dead,  which  is 
generally  but  a  few  moments,  then  slowly  swallowing  it. 
The  bite  of  these  two  serpents  is  generally  fatal,  "  a  com- 
plete solution  of  the  blood  in  the  whole  body  being  the  im- 
mediate cause  of  death."  Length,  sometimes  attaining  to 
thirty-four  inches. 

Family  II.  —  CoLUBRnxas.  "  Both  jaws  provided  with 
teeth  fully.  No  anal  appendages."* 

EUTAINIA  Sirtalis,  (B.  and  Gr.)  The  striped,  or  garter 
snake,  is  abundant.  It  preys  on  toads  and  frogs,  which  it 
seizes  and  swallows  entire.  These  frogs,  when  recently 
swallowed,  may  be  liberated  alive  by  killing  and  opening 
the  snake  soon  after  the  frog  has  been  bolted.  When 
this  is  done,  the  frogs  generally  hop  off  with  as  much  viva- 
city as  they  exhibited  before  their  capture  and  abdominal 
imprisonment;  no  doubt  to  be  ever  afterwards  delighted 
by  the  same  order  of  beautiful  reminiscences  which  enter- 
tained Jonah  after  a  like  experience.  This  snake,  accord- 
ing to  Dekay,  is  found  in  the  northern  part  of  New  York 
at  the  height  of  2000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  In 
Pennsylvania  it  is  found  on  the  highest  spurs  of  the  Alle- 
ghany,  near  3000  feet  above  tide  level. 

Dekay  quotes  the  EUTAINIA  Ordinata  as  a  New  York 
species. 

NERODIA  Sipedon,  (B.  and  G.)  Vernacular  "water-snake." 
As  its  name  indicates,  its  habits  are  aquatic.  It  is  an  abund- 
ant species  throughout  the  State,  but  not  so  common  on  the 
mountain.  Length,  generally  two  feet ;  preys  upon  fish  and 
frogs. 

REGINA  Leberis.  (?) 

*  Baird  and  Girard. 


SNAKES.  369 

HETERODON  Platyrhinos. — This  is  the  snake  commonly 
called  "blowing  viper."  When  approached  it  makes  a 
hissing  sound,  swells  its  head,  and  flattens  out  its  body,  and 
assumes  altogether  a  threatening  aspect,  but  is  harmless. 
Length,  two  feet. 

HETERODON  Niger,  (Troost.) — This  is  the  "black  viper," 
a  snake  frequently  found  on  the  mountain.  It  has  the  same 
habit  of  spreading  and  swelling  when  approached  or  at- 
tacked, as  the  blowing  viper,  making  up  what  it  wants  in 
venom  by  threatening  attitudes  and  ugliness  of  expression. 
General  length,  from  two  feet  to  thirty  inches.  Major  Le 
Conte  thinks  this  a  variety  of  platyrhinos,  having  seen  speci- 
mens showing  the  transition  to  the  black  color.  It  seems  to 
attain  to  greater  dimensions  than  the  light-colored  viper 
assumes. 

SCOTOPHIS  Alleghaniensis,  (B.  and  Gr.)  COLUBER  Alle- 
ghaniensis,  (Holbr.)  This  is  the  common  "  big  black  snake" 
of  the  mountain,  the  slim  Bascaaion  being  called  "racer." 
On  the  subject  of  its  common  name,  Dekay  remarks :  "It 
is  manifestly  the  snake  which  has  been  frequently  described 
to  me  of  great  length  and  prodigious  velocity,  and  to  which 
they  gave  the  name  of  '  Racer,'  or  '  Pilot.'  As  these  names 
are  frequently  applied  to  the  black  snake,  I  had  supposed 
that  species  to  have  been  intended  by  their  description."* 
In  Pennsylvania  it  does  not  receive  this  name,  both  species 
being  abundant,  and  generally  recognized  as  different ;  the 
Bascanion,  from  its  greater  thinness  and  delicacy  of  style 
and  more  marked  celerity  of  action,  being  exclusively  styled 
the  "Racer." 

The  "big  black  snake"  grows  to  a  great  size,  as  its  com- 
mon name  indicates ;  sometimes  attaining  to  the  length  of 
eight  feet,  and  is  strong,  quick,  and  violent  in  its  motions, 
frequently  presenting  a  truly  formidable  appearance.  It  is 
said  to  be  tamable,  and  to  become  familiar  and  friendly. 

OPHIBOLUS  Eximius,  (B.  and  G.)     COLUBER  Eximius, 

*  Fauna  of  New  York. 


370  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

(Dekay.) — This  is  the  milk,  house,  and  chicken  snake.  Not 
abundant  high  up  in  the  mountain.  It  frequents  out-houses, 
and  is  said  to  drink  milk  from  the  farmer's  pans  in  his  spring 
house. 

BASCANION  Constrictor,  (B.  and  G.)  (?)  COLUBER  Con- 
strictor, (Linn.,  Syst.  Nat.) — This  is  the  black  snake,  or 
"racer."  It  is  a  very  long,  thin  snake,  graceful  and  comely, 
but  exceedingly  wild  and  unapproachable.  It  is  quick  and 
swift  in  its  motions,  gliding  over  the  surface  more  rapidly 
than  any  other  snake. 

CHLOROSOMA  Yernalis,  (Wagl.,  B.  and  G.)  COLUBER 
Yernalis  of  Dekay,  Holbrook,  Storer,  etc.  Yulgo,  green 
snake.  This  handsome  little  snake  is  common  on  the  Alle- 
ghanies.  It  is  a  harmless  species,  and  can  be  handled  with 
impunity. 

DIADOPHIS  Punctatus,  (B.  and  G.)  Ring-necked  snake. 
COLUBER  Punctatus  of  Linn.,  Gm.,  Harl.,  Holb.,  Stor. — 
This  is  rather  a  common  species  on  the  Alleghany.  "Body 
bluish-black  above  ;  yellowish-orange  beneath  ;  a  yellowish- 
white  occipital  ring."  It  is  a  comely  little  reptile,  harmless 
and  innocent,  but,  like  the  rest  of  his  family,  continues  to 
suffer  from  the  heel  of  the  great  tyrannical  "  seed  of  the 
woman."* 

CELUTA  Amcena,  (B.  and  G.)  COLUBER  Amoenus,  (Say.) 
BRACHYORRHOS  Amoenus,  (Holb.)  etc. — "Above,  chestnut- 
brown  uniform;  opalescent,  bright  salmon-color  beneath." 
This  little  creature  is  positively  pretty,  (incarnations  of  evil 
frequently  are  !)  and  has  nothing  of  the  repulsive  characters 
of  the  "  snake"  about  it.  It  frequently  occurs  on  the  Alle- 
ghany. 

STORERIA  Dekayi,  (B.  andG.) — This  species  is  rare,  but 
is  found  occasionally  at  the  eastern  and  western  base  of  the 
mountain. 

*  The  killing  of  inoffensive,  harmless  animals,  even  if  they  are 
serpents,  is  no  very  noble  or  exalting  business.  It  seems  rather  an 
outlet  (popular  and  right,  of  course  !)  to  certain  old  instincts  of  pre- 
judice and  infernalism  belonging  to  the  domain  of  total  depravity. 


FROGS.  371 

STORERIA  Occipito-maculata,  (B.  and  G.) — Occurs  on  the 
mountain,  but  is  rare. 

ORDER  IY. — AMPHIBIA. 

This  is  a  division  of  the  old  class  Reptilia  adopted  by  some 
naturalists. 

BATRACHIANS. 

(Family  Ranina.) 

There  are  several  species  of  frog  on  the  mountain.  In  the 
seventh  volume  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Academy  of  Natu- 
ral Sciences  of  Philadelphia,  1855,  Major  Le  Conte  has 
given  a  corrected  catalogue  of  this  genus.  In  this  he  asserts 
the  identity  of  several  of  Holbrookes  different  species,  and 
rearranges  the  group,  discarding  certain  variable  characters, 
("  frogs  changing  their  color  at  will,")  and  establishing 
others  that  are  constant. 

RANA  Catesbiana,  (Linn.) — This  is  the  common  bullfrog, 
or  blood-an'-owns.  It  has  an  extensive  geographic  range, 
the  tadpoles,  or  undeveloped  young,  being  found  in  almost 
every  stream,  and  the  full-grown  frog  in  numbers  in  every 
pool  of  water  of  any  size.  It  grows  large,  and  is  much 
esteemed  by  many  as  an  article  of  food.  This  frog-taste  is 
of  Gallic  origin,  and  was  imported  no  doubt  with  some  other 
etherially  sublimated  nonsense  of  the  race  that  seems  de- 
termined to  rule  the  world,  not  only  in  ribbons  and  flummery, 
but  in  the  department  of  powder  and  ball.  The  sound  of 
the  voices  of  ancient  individuals  of  this  species  partakes  of 
the  sublime,  and  heard  at  twilight  or  night  in  the  deep  pools 
of  the  gorges  of  the  mountain,  constitutes  the  thorough-bass 
of  nature's  thousand-toned  orchestra. 

RANA  Fontinalis. — This  is  the  Horiconensis  and  Fonti- 
nalis  of  Holbrook,  the  first  of  which  he  confines  to  Lake 
George,  while  he  gives  to  the  latter  a  range  common  from 
Maine  to  Virginia.  Major  Le  Conte  says  "  it  inhabits  from 
one  end  of  the  country  to  another."  In  the  streams  of  the 
mountain. 


372  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

RANA  Pipiens,  (Halicina  of  Holbrook,)  water-frog. — This 
frog  abounds  in  the  streams,  ditches,  and  pools  of  the  moun- 
tain. It  makes  a  well-known  piping  noise,  and  is  one  of  the 
harbingers  of  spring,  waking  up  from  his  muddy  doze,  and 
adding  his  voice  to  the  concert  which  announces  the  vernal 
resurrection.  The  accumulated  piping  of  multitudes  of  this 
frog  is  sometimes  deafening. 

RANA  Palustris. — Range,  according  to  Holbrook,  "Atlan- 
tic States  from  Maine  to  Virginia."  Found  on  the  moun- 
tain. 

RANA  Conspersa. — Ponds  and  ditches  of  the  State.  This 
species  is  common. 

RANA  Sylvatica.  Wood-frog.  Harlan's  Pennsylvania. 
Holbrook  gives  a  range  to  this  frog  from  New  Hampshire  to 
Virginia,  Ohio,  and  Michigan.  The  wood-frog  is  found  in 
all  the  forests  of  the  mountain.  It  is  a  beautiful  and  ex- 
ceedingly agile  species,  making  long  leaps  when  disturbed, 
and  quickly  concealing  itself  in  the  leaves  and  moss. 

BUFO  Americanus.  Common  American  toad. — This  rep- 
tile is  well  known  to  all,  although  its  habits,  which  are  in- 
teresting, are  known  to  few.  It  first  grows  like  the  frog,  a 
tadpole  in  water,  and  afterwards  assumes  terrestrial  relation- 
ships. It  has  nocturnal  habits,  destroying  many  noxious 
insects,  is  harmless  and  wise,  and  said  to  be  susceptible  of 
domestication.  Its  beautiful  eyes  and  style  of  capturing  its 
insect  prey  are  much  admired.*  It  has  a  wide  geographic 
range. 

HYLA  Versicolor,  (Le  Conte.)     Tree-frog. — This  is  an 

*  The  family  Ranina  feed  on  flies,  worms,  and  the  larvae  of  in- 
sects, and  will  only  take  their  prey  when  alive.  They  hybernate,  bury- 
ing themselves  in  the  mud  during  winter.  On  an  occasion,  in  mid- 
winter, a  bushel  of  torpid  frogs  were  taken  out  of  one  hole  under  a 
mass  of  roots  beside  a  spring,  near  the  summit  of  the  mountain. 
The  water  of  the  spring  having  the  mean  temperature  of  the  earth 
here,  which  is  far  above  the  freezing  point,  kept  them  from  being  de- 
stroyed. They  gave  no  signs  of  life  when  exhumed  and  thrown  into 
the  snow. 


SALAMANDERS.  373 

interesting  animal,  with  peculiar  habits  and  organization, 
possessing,  like  his  brotherhood,  the  powers  of  the  chameleon 
to  a  certain  extent.  It  has  a  wide  range,  and  is  common  on 
the  mountain. 

HYLA  Pickeringia.  Pickering's  tree-frog. — This  frog  is 
found  from  Massachusetts  to  Pennsylvania. 

These  batrachians  live^upon  trees,  which  they  climb  with 
great  facility  by  a  special  structure  of  the  toes,  which  termi- 
nate by  adhesive  balls,  enabling  them  to  stick  to  any  surface, 
even  the  most  polished.  They  can  adhere  to  glass  upside- 
down,  suspending  themselves  like  flies  to  the  ceiling  of  a 
room.  They  feed  on  insects,  and  their  croaking  voices  are 
well  known  to  all. 


TAILED    BATRACHIANS. 

LAND    SALAMANDERS. 
(Family  Salamandridae.) 

In  the  Journal  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of 
Philadelphia,  October,  1849,  Spencer  F.  Baird  has  given  a 
revision  of  the  North  American  Tailed  Batrachians.  In 
this  he  suggests  the  identity  of  several  species  described  by 
other  authors,  and  changes  the  arrangement  of  the  group. 
His  synonyms  will  be  given  in  the  following  catalogue  : — 

SALAMANDRA,  (Brong.)  They  are  sometimes  in  water, 
all  at  first  being  aquatic,  and  breathing  by  external  gills. 

SALAMANDRA  Salmonea,  (Storer.)  PSEUDOTRITON  Sal- 
moneus,  (Baird.)  Salmon-colored  salamander. — Localities, 
quoted  by  herpetologists,  Vermont,  New  York,  South  Caro- 
lina, and  Pennsylvania.  (?)  Color,  brownish-red,  sides  sal- 
mon-colored, with  bright  salmon-colored  stripe  from  eye  to 
snout.  Length,  six  to  seven  inches. 

SALAMANDRA  Rubra,  (Baud.)  PSEUDOTRITON  Ruber, 
(Tsch.)  The  red  salamander. — This  is  a  beautiful  sala- 
mander of  a  red  or  crimson  color,  with  minute  spots  of 
black.  It  is  a  common  species,  living  under  decayed  logs, 


374  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

piles  of  leaves,  etc.  Holbrook  gives  it  a  range  of  the  At- 
lantic States  from  Massachusetts  to  Florida,  but  not  west 
of  the  Alleghany.  It  is  certainly  an  abundant  species  on 
the  Alleghany  and  the  western  slope  of  that  mountain. 
Length,  four  to  six  inches. 

SALAMANDRA  Coccinea.  The  scarlet  salamander. — "  Scar- 
let, with  two  or  more  ocellated  spots  on  the  sides.  Length, 
two  to  six  inches."  This  vermilion-colored  species  is  com- 
mon ;  said  to  be  "  most  abundant  after  showers,"  of  course 
because  it  comes  out,  and  is  more  easily  observed  at  that 
time. 

SALAMANDRA  Glutinosa,  (Green.)  Blue-spotted  sala- 
mander.— This  species  is  "  bluish-black,  with  minute  white 
spots  on  the  back  and  tail."  It  is  a  widely-distributed  spe- 
cies, one  of  the  most  common  of  the  family  of  North  Ameri- 
can salamanders,  being  found  from  43°  north  latitude  (Hol- 
brook) to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  It  abounds  on  the  mountain, 
frequenting  moist  places,  under  decaying  timber  and  loose 
flat  stones.  Length,  six  inches. 

SALAMANDRA  Erythronata,  (Green.)  PLETHODON  Ery- 
thronata,  (Bd.)  Red-backed  salamander. — This  is  a  com- 
mon "wood-lizard,"  said  to  be  the  most  abundant  in  the 
Northern  States.  Color,  "  head  brownish  above,  white  below, 
sides  dull-white  with  brownish  spots,  a  broad  red  stripe 
from  snout  to  end  of  tail,  on  the  young  crimson.  Length, 
3  to  3-5  inches ;  range,  from  44°  to  39°  north  latitude." 

SALAMANDRA  Quadrimaculata,  (Hoi.)  DESMOGNATHUS 
Fuscus,  (Bd.)  This  is  a  handsome  species,  but  rare  on  the 
Alleghany.  Holbrook  gives  it  a  range  of  the  Atlantic 
States.  He  obtained  specimens  from  Pennsylvania. 

SALAMANDRA  Jeffersoniana,  (Green.)  AMBYSTOMA  Jef- 
fersoniana.  First  locality,  Chartiers  Creek,  Washington 
County.  (Holbrook,  Green.)  Dekay  suspects  this  species 
to  be  a  variety  of  Glutinosa.  Found  on  Western  Appa- 
lachian range.  Habits,  terrestrial,  ''feeds  on  insects,  earth, 
worms,"  etc. 

SALAMANDRA  Biliueata,  (Green.)     SP:ELERPES  Bilineata, 


SALAMANDERS.  375 

(Bd.)  Striped-backed  salamander. — This  is  a  small,  smart 
species,  of  a  brownish-yellow  color,  with  two  or  three  black 
lines  on  its  back.  Length,  three  inches.  "  Found  in  shallow 
water,  beneath  stones,  and  moist  places." — Dekay.  Wide 
range,  Massachusetts,  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  North  and 
South  Carolina. 

SALAMANDRA  Symmetrica,  (Harlan.)  NOTOPTHALMUS 
Miniatus,  (Bd.)  Yellow-bellied  salamander. — This  is  a  beau- 
tiful species  of  "  brownish-red"  and  bright  pink  and  salmon 
color,  with  "  brilliant  vermilion  spots"  in  two  rows  on  the 
back.  This  species  is  common  on  the  mountain,  and  has  a 
wide  geographic  range.  It  is  represented  as  being  found 
from  the  Green  Mountains  of  New  Hampshire  to  Virginia, 
Carolina,  Florida,  and  Alabama. 

SALAMANDRA  Longicauda,  (Green.)  SPELERPES  Longi- 
cauda,  (Bd.)  Long- tailed  salamander.  —  Characteristics, 
"yellow,  with  handsome  black  spots  and  bars ;  body  half  as 
long  as  tail;  length,  six  inches;  aquatic  habits." — Dekay. 
Range,  Eastern  Pennsylvania,  Massachusetts,  New  Jersey, 
and  Pittsburg,  west  of  Alleghany. 

SALAMANDRA  Subviolacea,  (Bar.)  AMBYSTOMA  Punc- 
tata,  (Bd.)  Yiolet  salamander. — "Bluish-black,  with  yel- 
low spots."  Range,  Northern  United  States,  Yermont, 
Massachusetts,  Ohio,  Maryland,  Pennsylvania.  Length, 
five  to  seven  inches. 

SALAMANDRA  Fasciata,  (Green.)  AMBYSTOMA  Opaca, 
(Bd.)  The  blotched  salamander. — Color,  gray,  with  black- 
ish blotches.  Length,  five  inches.  Range,  Jersey,  Massa- 
chusetts, Ohio,  and  South  Carolina. 


AQUATIC    SALAMANDERS. 

TRITONS,  Water-Newts. 

This  division  of  the  salamander  family  is  aquatic  in  its 
habits,  soon  dying  when  taken  from  the  water,  although 
it  cannot  breathe  under  water,  coming  up  for  air.  A  re- 


376  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

markable  fact  concerning  this  animal  is  its  power  to  restore 
destroyed  and  removed  limbs  in  a  year ;  the  leg  being  re- 
stored again  and  again  if  destroyed.  Even  in  the  case  of 
an  entirely  extirpated  eye,  the  whole  organ,  with  all  its 
multiplexity  and  delicacy  of  anatomical  structure,  is  repro- 
duced in  less  than  eighteen  months.  Palatine  teeth,  trans- 
verse series,  tongue  adherent,  tail  compressed,  fingers  four, 
toes  five,  more  or  less  palmated  at  root. 

TRITON  Dorsalis,  (Harlan.)  NOTOPTHALMUS  Yirides- 
cens,  (Bd.)  Millipunctatus  of  Dekay.  Crimson  -  spotted 
triton.  —  This  is  a  hardy  newt,  "full  of  life  in  winter, 
even  swimming  under  ice  as  lively  as  in  summer,  and  only 
torpid  in  extremely  cold  weather."  (Holbrook.)  It  is 
found  in  almost  every  pool,  spring,  and  stream  of  water  in 
its  range,  which  "extends  from  one  end  of  the  Atlantic 
States  to  the  other."  It  feeds  on  insects,  and  casts  its  skin 
in  June,  (Storer.)  Color,  olive,  with  crimson  spots  bordered 
with  black ;  length,  three  to  four  inches. 

TRITON  Nigra,  (Hoi.)  DESMOGNATHUS  Niger,  (Bd.) — 
The  dusky  triton  is  entirely  aquatic  in  its  habits.  Color, 
blackish,  with  small  white  spots  on  sides,  tail  much  com- 
pressed, (the  tails  of  all  the  tritons  are  compressed.)  Length, 
four  to  six  inches  ;  range,  Atlantic  States  from  latitude  43° 
to  Gulf  of  Mexico.  A  rare  species  in  the  waters  of  the 
mountain. 

TRITON  Porphyriticus,  (Green.)  PLETHODON  Glutino- 
sum,  (Tsch.)  The  gray-spotted  triton.  Black,  with  grayish 
spots  ;  length,  seven  inches.  Only  locality  Western  Penn- 
sylvania. (?) 

The  gelatinous  ropes  and  coiled  globular  bunches  of  the 
spawn,  containing  the  eggs  and  young  of  the  salamanders,  are 
found  in  all  pools,  puddles,  or  spots  containing  water,  and 
which  have  no  fish  in  them.  Where  there  are  fish,  the  eggs 
and  young,  with  their  enveloping  mass,  are  destroyed.  The 
precaution  of  the  salamander  is  so  great  on  this  point  that 
its  eggs  are  frequently  deposited  in  the  drains  and  ruts,  or 
wheel-tracks  of  roads,  or  any  accidental  puddle  which  may 


SALAMANDERS.  377 

for  the  time  contain  water,  but  inaccessible  to  the  regular 
inhabitants  of  water.  These  places  drying  up,  millions  are 
destroyed.  Their  reproductive  power,  however,  seems  in- 
computable. 

Tribe  Immutabilia.  —  The  Crypto  Branchiadae  have  no 
gills,  but  breathe  by  exposed  spiracles  or  branchial  orifices 
at  the  neck. 

PROTONOPSIS  Gigantea,  (Barton.)  —  This  is  commonly 
called  the  Alleghany  Hell-bender.  It  is  the  large  water- 
newt  of  Western  Pennsylvania,  the  Ohio,  and  Missis- 
sippi. It  is  "slate-colored,  mottled  with  dusky."  This 
enormous  newt,  which  sometimes  attains  to  thirty  inches 
or  nearly  three  feet,  lives  entirely  in  the  water,  eating 
fish,  worms,  shell -fish,  etc.  It  is  one  of  the  most  re- 
volting creatures  in  existence,  resembling  Milton's  sin,  its 
sprawling,  flabby,  slimy,  and  almost  amorphic  outlines  sug- 
gesting some  "fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms,"  presided 
over  by  the  genius  of  deformity  and  disgust,  rather  than  the 
clearly  demarked  structure  of  a  regularly-organized  animal. 
The  euphonious  name  of  hell-bender,  which  is  commonly 
applied  to  this  newt,  seems  exceedingly  appropriate.  It 
is  constantly  seizing  the  boy-angler's  hook,  and  when  landed 
with  gaping  mouth  and  wicked  gestures,  is  generally  left 
in  the  quiet  possession  of  rod,  line,  hook,  and  all,  the  terror- 
stricken  lad  retreating  with  precipitation  and  fear  from 
what  he  calls  the  "poison  alligator."  The  Protonopsis  fol- 
lows the  streams  of  the  western  side  of  the  mountain  as 
high  up  as  there  are  any  considerable  volumes  of  water.  It 
is  almost  confined  to  Western  waters  ;*  abounding  in  streams 
which  contain  the  soft-shelled  turtles,  (Tryonix,)  and  seem- 
ing, like  that  animal,  to  have  an  original  natural  affinity  for 
that  region,  f 

The  Alleghany,  being  the  eastern  line  of  the  great  cen- 

*  It  has  been  found  in  the  Susquehanna,  near  Columbia. — Baird. 
f   See   Dekay,    Holbrook,    etc.,    on  Eastern    appearance   of   the 
Tryonix. 

32* 


378  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

tral  North  American  zoological  region,  would  seem,  not- 
withstanding Dr.  Binney's  suggestion  that  it  presents  no 
barrier  to  the  spreading  of  species,  (see  one  of  the  leading 
extracts,)  to  exhibit  some  actual  limits  to  the  general  diffu- 
sion of  some  of  the  reptiles  and  fishes  at  least. 

MENOBRANCHUS  Maculatus,  (Harlan. )  The  spotted  water- 
newt  is  a  striking  and  interesting  form  of  reptile.  It  has 
a  handsomely-mottled  body,  with  pleasant  colors,  and  breathes 
by  a  group  of  fimbriated  persistent  branchise  or  spiracles, 
which  project  from  the  sides  of  the  neck  like  a  blood-red 
fringe.  This  lung  of  the  animal  is  kept  moving  backward 
and  forward  in  the  process  of  oxygination  of  its  blood.  It 
is  found  in  the  Alleghany  River,  but  does  not  get  up  high 
into  the  mountain. 

MENOBRANCHUS  Lateralis,  (Say.) — This  species  was  found 
by  Say  at  Pittsburg.  It  does  not  pursue  the  waters  of  the 
Alleghany  to  great  heights.  These  two  animals  are  also 
Western  species. 


FISHES.  379 


CLASS  IV.-FISHES. 

"ALL  life  is  from  the  sea,  none  from  the  continent.  All 
mucus  is  endowed  with  life.  The  whole  sea  is  alive.  It  is 
a  fluctuating,  ever  self-elevating  and  ever  self-depressing  or- 
ganism. Where  the  sea-organism  by  self-elevation  succeeds 
in  attaining  unto  form,  there  issues  forth  from  it  a  higher 
organism.  Love  arose  out  of  the  sea-foam.  The  first  or- 
ganic forms,  whether  plants  or  animals,  emerged  from  the 
shallow  parts  of  the  sea.  The  first  men  were  the  literal  and 
mountainous  inhabitants  of  warmer  countries,  and  found, 
therefore,  at  once  reptiles,  fishes,  fruit,  and  game  for 
food. " — PhysiopMlosopliy. 

The  ripple-marked  sand-rock  of  the  mountain's  brow,  a 
miniature  sea  embossed  in  original  stucco,  a  miraculous  me- 
dallion of  a  most  antique  regime,  the  agitated  waters  chiseled 
in  stone  by  the  artistic  sculptor  of  the  globe,  now  high  in  the 
air,  "  plays  glad  with  the  breezes  as  once  with  the  waves : "  "  old 
play -fellows  meet."  So  the  cloud  stoops  and  nods  to  his 
brother,  has  the  Old  friend  the  ocean  along  with  him,  and  can- 
not be  severed,  must  meet  in  the  great  waltz  again,  "by  one 
music  enchanted ;"  thus  by  ancient  affinity  they  approach  : 
down  comes  the  rain,  and  the  sand  and  the  wave  meet. 
Strange  !  but  here  is  the  sea,  and  here  is  its  ever-accompany- 
ing life,  for  all  "life  is  from  the  sea." 

Under  the  shadow  of  that  rock,  poised  in  the  crystal  me- 
dium that  has  just  sprung  from  its  heart,  hangs  the  moun- 
tain trout,  true  brother  of  the  illustrious  sailor  of  the  seas, 
the  navigator  of  the  ocean,  the  grand  salmon,  (Salmo  salar,) 
whose  armies,  by  a  wondrous  instinct,  as  true  as  the  needle 
to  the  pole,  traversed  weary  wastes  of  water,  silent,  sure, 
and  steadfast  as  the  planets  in  their  starry  spaces.  "  Born  in 


380  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

the  fresh  water,  it  grows  in  the  sea ;  during  winter  takes 
refuge  in  the  ocean;  it  passes  the  summer  in  rivers,  and 
ascends  to  their  sources.  It  traverses  with  facility  the  whole 
extent  of  the  longest  rivers." 

"As  soon  as  a  river  is  freed  of  ice,  the  salmon  enter  it, 
and  always  seem  by  nature  impelled  to  enter  those  streams 
in  which  they  were  born ;  an  invisible  power  traces  the 
route  they  are  to  follow,  brings  them  back  exactly  to  the 
place  of  their  birth,  and  all  of  them,  reassembled  without 
tumult,  appear  to  follow  its  guidance  with  implicit  respect, 
just  as  we  see  the  swallows  every  spring  return  to  the  nest 
of  the  preceding  year."  The  season  of  fresh-water  festivi- 
ties passed,  the  pilgrimage  to  the  original  shrine  of  love, 
and  the  scenes  of  youth,  rock,  waterfall  and  tree,  performed, 
the  enchantment  of  his  birth-place  in  the  far-off  hill  and 
mountain  river-bed  realized,  the  summer  ended,  this  great 
fish,  attenuated  and  exhausted,  quietly  returns  for  a  season 
of  repose  to  the  caverns  of  the  sea.  So  his  smaller  brother  of 
the  distant  rivulet,  the  brook-trout,  born  in  the  dance  and  roar 
of  the  rocky  torrent,  or  in  the  play  over  pebbly  bed  of  rush- 
ing spring-flows,  has  still  an  inextinguishable  longing  to 
go  to  the  sea  again,  and  will  go  when  he  can,  forming 
new  characters  and  affinities,  almost  to  the  loss  of  his 
identity.  Mighty  sounding  Sea !  Venerable  Mother  of  life  ! 
ancient  abyss  of  organic  mucus  !  thou  wrappest  the  world 
as  a  mantle  ;  "  an  ever-fluctuating,  ever  self-elevating,  ever 
self  -  depressing  organism,"  like  the  infinite  Brahma,  thou 
givest  life  forever,  but  will  not  be  defrauded ;  thy  children 
still  long  to  go  to  thee,  still  pray  to  be  absorbed  again,  and 
the  trout  of  the  mountain-top,  whose  home  is  made  by  the 
droppings  of  the  cloud,  and  the  wandering  salmon  of  the 

deep, — 

"  The  seeds  of  land  and  sea 
Are  atoms  of  thy  body  bright, 
And  thy  behest  obey." 


PERCH.  381 

Fishes  are  distributed  into  two  great  divisions,  Bony 
and  Cartilaginous,  the  first  group  containing  very  much  the 
largest  number  of  species.  It  is  a  numerous  class  of  ani- 
mals, supposed  to  consist  of  between  eight  and  nine  thou- 
sand species.  The  streams  which  take  their  rise  in  the  Alle- 
ghanies  and  flow  east  and  west,  present  a  variety  of  fishes, 
a  few  only  of  which  can  be  named  here. 


BONY  FISH,  (Spine-rayed.) 
Family  PercidaB. 

PERCA  Flavescens,  (Mitch.)  The  yellow  perch  is  a  widely- 
distributed  species.  The  almost  universally-diffused  "Ameri- 
can yellow  perch"  is  found  in  the  larger  streams  flowing 
from  the  mountain.  Small  young  ones  occasionally  pene- 
trate the  higher  streams,  rarely  if  ever  the  extreme  spring- 
run  or  last  rivulet.  Being  a  rough,  savage  eater,  bold  and 
tough,  he  takes  an  extensive  range. 

PERCA  Nebulosa,  and  Minima  of  Haldeman  are  inhabit- 
ants of  the  Susquehanna  River,  whose  tributaries  flow  from 
the  Alleghany  Mountain.  These  species  are  found  sometimes 
high  up  those  streams. 

LUCIOPERCA  Americana,  (Cuv.  et  Yal.)  Yellow  pike- 
perch. — This  fish  is  extensively  distributed  both  east  and 
west.  It  has  many  names  in  different  parts  of  the  country, 
and  is  called  salmon  in  the  Western  waters.  It  sometimes 
ascends  the  streams  into  the  mountain  range,  and  is  esteemed 
an  excellent  fish  for  the  table,  and  being  voracious,  is  easily 
taken. 

POMOTIS  Yulgaris,  (Cuv.  etYal.)  Pond-fish,  sun-fish. — 
The  genus  Pomotis  is  American,  and  composed  of  fresh- 
water fish.  The  vulgaris  has  a  wide  range,  as  Eastern 
States  to  North  Carolina,  and  west  to  Lake  Huron. 
This  brilliant  little  gem  of  a  fish  is  found  in  the  moun- 
tain waters.  It  abounds,  especially  in  the  larger  creeks 
and  rivers,  lower  down,  and  does  not  seem  to  be  much  of 


382  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

a  climber  or  mountaineer.  Rarely  seen  in  the  extremely 
high  runs,  it  prefers  the  deeper  streams  with  pools  and 
eddies.  Here  he  may  be  seen  poised  under  the  floating 
water-plants,  splatter-docks,  and  potomogotons,  near  the 
edge  of  the  stream,  looking  up  familiarly  as  if  he  wished, 
for  variety,  to  leave  his  watery  medium  for  a  time  and 
make  a  still  more  flashy  display  of  the  rays  he  has  stolen 
from  the  sun.  Thus,  with  quivering  fin;  motionless  body, 
and  great  staring  eyes,  he  fills  the  fisher-boy  with  the  deli- 
cious perturbation  that  Campbell  or  Gerhard  might  feel  in 
the  presence  of  the  king  of  the  desert,  the  lion. 

POMOTIS  Appendix.  Black-eared  sun-fish. — This  species 
is  found  in  the  ponds  at  eastern  base  of  the  mountain. 

Family  TRIGLID^E. 

COTTUS  Gracilis,  (Heck.)  URANIDEA  Quiescens,  (Dekay.) 
Little  star-gazer,  Miller's  thumb. — This  strange  little  fish 
attains  only  to  the  length  of  a  few  inches.  It  lies  still  on 
the  bottom  of  the  streams,  under  stones,  moving  quickly 
when  disturbed,  and  darting  off  to  a  new  hiding-place. 

COTTUS  Yiscosus,  (Hald.)  This  species  penetrates  the 
mountain  streams. 

"  West  of  the  Alleghany  we  know  of  the  existence  of  two 
species,  one  C.  Bairdii,  in  the  northern,  the  other,  C.  Wil- 
sonii,  in  the  eastern  tributaries  of  the  Ohio." — (Girard.) 
Do  these  species  penetrate  high  into  the  Alleghany  range  ? 


SOFT-BAYED  FISHES. 
(Family  Siluridae.) 

PIMELODUS  Catus.  The  common  cat-fish  has  a  wide 
range,  New  Hampshire  to  Florida.  Two  or  three  species 
of  the  genus  Pimelodus  are  found  in  the  waters  flowing 
from  the  mountain.  Only  the  smaller  species  penetrate  the 
higher  streams,  and  these  never  get  very  near  the  spring- 
heads. 


CAT-FISH — SUCKER.  383 

With  regard  to  the  fish  called  by  Dekay  Pimelodus  catus, 
Girard  remarks,  in  Proceedings  of  Academy  of  Natural 
Sciences  of  Philadelphia  for  1859,  p.  160,  "  The  true  Pime- 
lodus catus  is  a  Southern  species,  widely  distinct  from  the 
above."  He  suggests  that  "it  might  be  called  the  Dekai." 
He  proposes  the  name  of  Pimelodus  lynx  for  a  species  "fur- 
nished by  the  hydrographic  basin  of  the  Chesapeake."  This 
fish  is  found  in  the  streams,  and  ponds  communicating  with 
them,  up  to  the  eastern  base  of  the  Alleghany  Mountain. 

PIMELODUS  Furcatus,  (Cuv.  et  Val.)  This  fish  grows  in 
the  Ohio  to  the  enormous  length  of  4J  to  5  feet.  Large 
individuals  are  never  found  high  up  the  streams  among  the 
mountains. 

PIMELODUS.  (?)  A  little  cat-fish,  called  the  stinger, 
or  stony-batter,  is  found  in  the  waters  at  the  eastern  base 
of  the  mountain.  It  is  a  quick-motioned  fish  which  inflicts 
quite  a  severe  wound  by  a  spine  concealed  in  the  pectoral 
fin.  Hence  its  name  of  "stinger."  It  lives  much  under 
stones  in  the  streams  it  frequents,  and  never  attains  more 
than  a  few  inches  in  length. 

Family  CYPRINHLE. 

CATOSTOMUS. — Of  the  sucker  family  a  number  of  species 
are  found  in  the  mountain  streams.  They  are  the  most 
common  fishes,  and  found  in  nearly  all  waters.*  It  is  said 
by  the  icthyologists  to  be  an  exclusively  North  Ameri- 
can group. f  Descending  from  the  mountain  into  the 
rivers,  the  old  sucker  attains  to  respectable  dimensions, 
sometimes  becoming  a  large  and  powerful  fish.  In  the 
small  and  shallow  runs  higher  up,  they  swarm  in  numbers, 
but  are  of  diminutive  size.  The  flesh  of  these  fish  is  not 
much  esteemed  as  an  article  of  food,  as  it  is  soft,  insipid, 
and  at  certain  seasons  entirely  unpalatable.  They  abound 

*  Wherever  water  exists,  except  in  dead  puddles,  this  numerous 
family  assume  the  privilege  of  going. 

f  M.  Lesueur  long  since  described  seventeen  species  of  American 
suckers,  and  figured  nine  of  them.  (See  Cuvier,  Pisces,  p.  380.) 


384  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

in  bones,  which  are  sharp  and  hard,  and,  altogether,  the 
eating  of  this  fish  is  not  much  unlike  the  mastication  of  a 
pincushion. 

CATOSTOMTJS  Communis,  (Les.)  Common  sucker. — This 
species  abounds  in  the  larger  streams.  It  has  a  wide  geo- 
graphic range. 

CATOSTOMUS  Tuberculatus,  (Les.)  The  horned  sucker  is 
said  to  be  found  in  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  Con- 
necticut, New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania.  (?) 

CATOSTOMTJS  Maculosus,  (Les.)  This  fish  is  commonly 
called  the  "mall  head  sucker"  from  its  large,  angular,  and 
peculiar  head.  It  climbs  in  the  smallest  streams  high  up 
on  the  mountain.  It  is  the  spotted  sucker  which  lies  still 
and  motionless  on  the  bottoms  of  the  streams,  clinging  closely 
to  the  stones. 

CATOSTOMUS  Duquesnii,  (Les.)  White,  or  Pittsburg 
sucker. — This  is  a  handsome  fish,  and  in  the  larger  rivers 
grows  to  a  great  size. 

CATOSTOMUS  Elongatus.  Long  sucker. — This  species  is 
commonly  called  the  "winter  sucker,"  and  follows  the  runs 
to  their  springs  in  the  mountain.  Both  the  last  species 
have  a  wide  range. 

HYLOMYSON  Nigricans.     Black  sucker.  (?) 

STILBE  Crysoleucus.  New  York  shiner. — There  are  a 
number  of  synonyms  for  this  fish,  as  Cyprinus  crysoleucus, 
Leuciscus  Crysoleucus,  Leucomosus  Americanus,  etc.  It  is 
a  beautiful  little  bright  silvery  fish,  sometimes  attaining  to 
five  inches  in  length,  and  looks  like  a  miniature  shad.  It  is 
in  all  the  streams  of  Pennsylvania,  and  has  also  a  wide  ex- 
tralimital  range.  Said  to  be  "  found  all  over  the  temperate 
regions  of  North  America." 

LEUCISCUS  Cornutus.  The  Plargyrus  cornutus,  red  fin 
horn  chub,  abounds  in  all  clear  streams  with  trout  and  other 
species  of  the  genus.  It  is  a  beautiful  fish,  and  easily  taken, 
being  voracious,  and  biting  at  everything.  Length,  six  to 
seven  inches. 

LEUCISCUS  Pulchellus.     Roach  dace,  cousin  trout. — This 


DACE — KOACH — MINNOW.  385 

species  is  sometimes  found  fourteen  inches  long.  It  is 
found  in  the  Susquehanna,  but  not  high  up  the  mountain 
streams. 

LEUCISCUS  atronasus.  ARGYREUS  atronasus.  Black-nosed 
dace.  (?)  Dace,  running  chub,  is  common  all  over  the  State. 
Length,  3J  inches. 

LEUCISCUS  argenteus.     Silvery  dace.  (?) 
LEUCISCUS  nitidus.     White  dace,  shiner.   (?) 
LEUCISCUS  pygmseus.     Pigmy  shiner. — This  is  said  to  be 
the  smallest  of  the  American  cyprinidse,  its  length  being 
only  one  inch. 

LEUCISCUS  rutilus.  Roach.  —  This  beautiful,  familiar, 
almost  friendly  and  domestic  little  fish,  is  common  in  all  the 
runs  of  the  mountain.  It  infests  every  brook,  playing  in 
their  smallest  beds  without  shyness,  and  darting  and  seizing 
as  food  almost  anything  that  falls  into  the  water.  Every 
boy  will  remember  him  as  his  first  trophy  with  string  and 
pin-hook,  his  first  Waltonian  dream,  when 

"Sauntering  'long  and  listless,'  as  Tennyson  has  it, 
Long  and  listless  strolling,  ungainly  in  hobbadiboyhood." 

Length,  four  or  five  inches. 

HYDRARGYRA.  Minnow.  —  This,  and  some  of  the  pre- 
ceding genera,  are  extensively  distributed.  They  crowd  the 
streams,  and  are  the  "shiners"  of  the  boys'  sport,  being 
small,  graceful  fish,  with  a  variety  of  metallic  reflections. 
The  mountain  waters  abound  with  them  up  to  the  spot 
where  the  springs  boil  up  from  the  sand.  Every  little 
rivulet  is  alive  with  them,  of  every  dimension,  from  the  almost 
invisible  fish-shaped  atom,  to  individuals  of  three  or  four 
inches  in  length.  They  are  tame  and  fearless,  and  can  be 
seen  at  all  times  in  shoals  through  the  transparent  ice,  even 
in  the  coldest  weather  as  lively  as  in  August  or  July.  Their 
bright-polished  sides,  tinged  with  silver  and  bronze,  flash 
in  every  pool,  and  their  delicate  forms  glide  from  every  grass- 
tuft  and  overhanging  bank  of  the  mountain  brooks.  They 
are  very  prolific.  Dekay  enumerates  three  species  belonging 
to  New  York. 

33 


386  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

SEMOTILUS  atro-maculatus.  The  spotted  shiner  is  one 
of  the  commonest  "  chubs."  He  flourishes  every  place  on 
the  mountain  range. 

EDOGLOSSUM  masilingua.  The  wry-mouth  dace  is  abund- 
ant on  the  mountain. 

ETHEOSTOMA.  (?)  Darter. — One  species  of  this  genus  is 
found  on  the  mountain. 

Family  ESOCID^E. 

Esox  estor,  (Les.)  Pike,  pickerel,  muskellunge. — Length, 
one  to  three,  or  nearly  four  feet. 

Esox  reticulatus,  (Les.)  Common  pike. — Length,  one 
to  two  feet.  Range,  Eastern  and  Middle  States,  "being 
abundant  in  the  waters  of  the  Ohio  River."  Of  the  pike  or 
pickerel  family,  the  streams  which  flow  from  the  mountain 
are  supposed  to  have  but  this  one  species.  It  is  rarely  found 
high  in  the  mountains,  and  never  in  the  small  spring-runs  near 
their  summits.  Lower  down,  on  both  sides  of  the  Alleghany 
range,  where  the  streams  are  larger  and  there  are  natural  and 
artificial  pools,  it  is  found  of  a  large  size.  This  seems  to 
be  one  of  the  causes  of  the  brook-trout  pushing  its  residence 
to  the  smaller  streams  and  springs,  rather  than  remain 
in  the  lower  larger  waters  to  be  devoured  by  pikes  and 
perches.  This  is  the  species  said  to  be  common  "  through- 
out the  United  States  except  in  extreme  Western  and 
Southern  waters,"  extending  from  New  England  to  the 
western  limits  of  Pennsylvania,  and  found  in  every  river, 
pond,  and  streamlet.  It  is  represented  not  to  grow  larger  than 
from  six  to  seven  pounds,  although  it  is  at  the  same  time 
alleged  that  individuals  have  been  taken  weighing  sixteen 
pounds.  It  has  been  also  stated  that  the  two  large  species, 
the  Esox  estor  and  Esox  lucioides,  are  not  found  in  any 
other  part  of  the  continent  except  the  great  lakes  and 
waters  of  the  St.  Lawrence  Basin.  These  fish,  especially 
the  Esox  estor,  grow  to  an  immense  size  ;  by  Dr.  Richard- 
son said  to  be  often  twenty-eight  pounds.  From  the  dimen- 
sions of  some  described  by  Dr.  Dekay,  more  than  four  feet 


BROOK-TROUT.  387 

long,  it  has  been  suggested  that  this  species  may  sometimes 
attain  the  weight  of  fifty  pounds.  The  other  species,  the 
northern  pickerel  (Esox  lucioides)  sometimes  attains  the 
weight  of  seventeen  pounds.  The  reticulatus  being  re- 
stricted to  six  or  seven  pounds,  the  range  of  the  larger 
species  must  be  more  extensive  than  that  assigned  to  it  by 
some  writers  for  the  following  reason  :  in  the  dams  or  slack- 
water  pools  of  the  Conemaugh  River  on  the  western  side, 
and  within  the  Appalachian  range,  a  pike  is  often  taken 
weighing  thirty  pounds,  and  very  frequently  twenty  and 
twenty-eight  pounds.  The  head  is  enormous,  and  the  fish 
is  considered  the  greatest  delicacy,  and  not  like  the  common 
pickerel,  "coarse,  watery,  and  of  small  value  for  the  table." 
Is  this  the  great  St.  Lawrence  Basin  Muskellange  Esox 
estor  or  another  Esox  ? 

Family  SALMONID^. 

SALMO  fontinalis,  (Mitch.)  Brook-trout. — Range,  all 
clear  running  streams  in  the  Northern  and  Middle  States. 
Length,  said  to  be  eight  inches,  but  often  much  larger.*  Far 
up  in  the  mountain  rivulets,  even  to  the  spring  as  it  escapes 
through  the  fissures  of  the  rock,  this  species  climbs. 
Wherever  fresh  water,  especially  cold  spring-water,  is  found 
in  sufficient  quantity  to  immerse  their  bodies,  they  abound 
in  hole  and  eddy,  in  pool  and  rapid,  and  it  is  wonderful 
how  they  thread  their  way  up  the  mountain  side  through 
the  swift-rushing  streams,  over  falls  boiling  through  rocks, 
roots,  and  drifts.  Where  the  smallest  rill  or  little  spring  re- 
mains permanently  fresh  throughout  the  year,  this  species,  in 
some  shape  of  growth,  is  found  in  proportion  to  the  quantity 
of  the  water,  either  as  smallest  troutlet  or  adult  fish.  The 
latter,  or  full-grown  trout,  is  generally  found  in  the  larger 
waters  some  distance  from  the  mountains,  while  the  young 
fry  in  quantities  find  their  way  up  to  the  springs,  and  live  and 

*  "A  trout,  measuring  fifteen  inches  in  length,  and  weighing  two 
pounds  two  ounces,  was  caught  in  Piney  Creek,  near  the  base  of  the 
Alleghany,  July,  1859."— M. 


388  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

grow  in  spaces  that  would  not  conceal  the  body  of  the  full- 
grown  trout.  Off  the  mountain,  where  the  springs  form 
creeks  and  rivers,  the  trout  attains  frequently  a  very  large  size, 
even  the  fullest  dimensions  attributed  to  him  by  the  na- 
turalist. These  large  individuals  are  supposed  to  be  ex- 
tremely old.  It  has  been  suggested  that  there  is  a  smaller 
form  of  the  adult  brook-trout  adapted  to  the  smaller  streams 
which  they  inhabit,  and  that  he  is  susceptible  of  still  greater 
development  under  conditions  more  favorable  to  an  enlarge- 
ment of  his  body.  In  the  clear,  bright  spring-runs  of  the 
mountain,  the  trout  is  generally  thought  to  attain  his 
greatest  perfection  of  coloring,  sporting  his  handsome 
figures  and  brilliant  tints  in  perfection.  Although  he  is 
spawned,  lives,  and  dies  in  the  mountain  streamlet,  it  is 
maintained  that  he  still  retains  his  migratory  instinct,  and 
has  a  tendency  to  return  to  the  sea,  and  that  individuals  do 
succeed  in  returning  again  through  the  larger  rivers  to  the 
main,  where,  under  the  new  conditions  of  the  new  medium,  he 
develops  new  and  altered  attributes,  to  the  perplexity  and 
confusion  of  the  fish-fancier,  and  even  of  the  scientific  ob- 
server. The  flesh  of  this  exquisite  fish  is  considered  one 
of  the  greatest  luxuries  of  the  gourmand. 

Another  member  of  the  family  of  salmons  is  said  to  be 
found  in  the  larger  streams  which  flow  from  both  sides  of 
the  Appalachian  chain.  This  is  commonly  called  the  white 
salmon,  and  is  a  plain  fish  with  a  graceful  form,  but  with- 
out brilliant  coloring,  and  the  clear  prominent  characters  of 
the  salmon.  It  is  found  in  both  branches  of  the  Susquehanna 
and  Juniata  rivers  in  the  East,  and  the  Alleghany,  Cone- 
maugh,  and  Youghiogheny  rivers  in  the  West.  The  flesh 
of  this  fish  is  much  esteemed. 

Family  ANQUILLID^. 

ANQUILLA  vulgaris,  (Mitch.)  Common  eel. — The  eel  is 
found  in  the  streams  both  sides  of  the  mountain,  but  not 
abundantly,  high  up.  The  Western  waters  are  especially 
destitute  of  this  fish,  although  it  is  said  to  be  common,  and 


LAMPREY.  389 

a  cosmopolite.  The  common  eel  is  very  abundant  in 
the  eastern  waters,  particularly  low  down  in  the  larger 
streams  or  rivers,  but  it  also  ascends  the  mountains  to  a 
great  height,  small  ones  being  occasionally  found  in  the 
last  rivulets  of  the  springs.  They  say  the  eel7 spawns  in  the 
ocean,  and  never  in  lakes  and  rivers.  The  journeys  from 
the  estuaries  of  the  ocean  to  the  summits  of  the  mountains 
must  be  full  of  adventure,  and  the  biography  of  an  eel 
would,  no  doubt,  be  the  record  of  a  varied  experience. 
Leaving  the  "salt  and  slimy  sea,"  however,  for  the  pure 
and  limpid  streams  of  the  mountain,  is  certainly  excel- 
lent taste  in  the  eel  family,  and  the  philosophy  of  the 
migrations  of  the  Anadrom  is  a  revelation  of  the  infallible 
wisdom  of  instinct  In  the  clear,  cold  fresh  waters  of  the 
large  streams,  this  fish  grows  to  an  enormous  size  ;  the  flesh 
is  white,  fat,  and  of  delicious  flavor.  The  habits  of  the 
family  are  well  known. 

Family  SUCTORII,  or  PETROMYZONID^E.. 
PETROMYZON  fluvialis,  (?)  Americanus.  The  lamprey  is 
rather  a  rare  fish,  living  in  the  larger  streams,  and  never 
found  high  up  in  the  mountain.  It  is  peculiar,  and  its  habits 
and  organization  are  an  interesting  subject  to  the  naturalist. 
Dekay  enumerates  three  species  of  Petromyzon,  two  small, 
one  large,  which  he  calls  the  sea  lamprey.  The  lamprey  of 
the  Juniata  River  is  a  large  eel,  and  would  fill  his  descrip- 
tion of  the  sea  lamprey  or  Americanus. 

33* 


390  THE   MOUNTAIN. 


INVERTEBEATA; 

OK, 

SECOND,  THIRD,  AND  FOURTH  GREAT  DIVISIONS  OF 
THE  ANIMAL  KINGDOM. 


THE  limits  of  the  present  work  on  the  mountain  being 
fixed  quite  in  disproportion  to  the  magnitude  of  the  subject- 
matter,  painful  restraints,  distressing  hobbles,  and  trouble- 
some bars,  have  hedged  in  the  field  of  labor.  Pause  and 
ponder  over  this  "  daring  of  the  impossible," — creation  to 
be  squeezed  into  a  nut-shell ;  the  world  precipitated  into  a 
thimble  ;  still  more  insane,  the  mountain  concentrated  and 
preserved  in  a  gallipot  ?  Painful  reflection  !  unheard  of 
audacity  !  immeasurable  folly  !  May  the  disgust  and  indig- 
nation of  the  gods  be  averted. 

This  shadow  of  the  "bill  of  fare;"  this  inkling  of  the 
opulence  of  the  ineifable  promises  of  blessedness  to  body 
and  soul  from  the  mountain  as  a  habitat,  would  be  still 
more  meagre,  imperfect,  and  vain,  without  some  representa- 
tion from  the  invertebrates  ;  for  here  is  the  region  where  the 
mysterious  bond  of  animality  commences ;  here  is  an  or- 
ganic realm  of  wonder  and  fable  ;  here  is  a  world  of  eccen- 
tric and  anomalous  FORMS  ;  and  here  is  the  tragic  union  of 
the  ponderable  and  imponderable  in  the  lowest  media,  and 
under  every  possible  condition  of  time  and  space,  and  in  the 
most  doleful  and  repulsive  domains  of  absolute  brutism. 

"Life  is  a  vortex  more  or  less  rapid,  more  or  less  compli- 
cated, the  direction  of  which  is  invariable,  and  which  always 
carries  along  molecules  of  similar  kinds,  but  into  which  in- 
dividual molecules  are  continually  entering,  and  from  which 


INVERTEBEAT^.  391 

they  are  continually  departing ;  so  that  the  form  of  a  liv- 
ing body  is  more  essential  to  it  than  its  matter."  Perfection 
being  the  end  proposed,  all  bottles  were  to  be  filled,  all 
nooks  and  crannies  of  nature  occupied,  all  things  were  to 
live,  and  "work  in  endless  motion  ;"  that  celestial  loaferdom, 
that  far-off  paradise  of  all  men's  dreams  and  prayers,  where 
there  is  eternal  repose  and  nothing  to  be  done,  having  no 
prototype  in  the  plan  of  the  universe.  Hence  the  tyrannic  law 
of  form  must  be  revealed,  its  instrumentality  was  inevitable, 
the  adaptation  to  the  condition,  for  a  purpose,  and  hence 
this  endless  variety,  this  countless  diversity  of  organic  beings. 

But  this  is  a  strange  relationship,  vertebrata,  inverte- 
brata — brain  and  no  brain. 

Still  stranger  is  the  no-brain's  relationship  to  the  no-brain. 
What  possible  nexus  can  exist  between  this  huge  mollusk* 
with  his  fleshy  body,  and  house  of  rock,  and  that  epheme- 
ral insect,  with  winged,  etherial,  and  transparent  body? 
What  element  of  sameness  could  ever  be  found  between  the 
infernal  arachnida,  or  spider,  full  of  poison,  in  his  trap-den 
of  insidious  ropes,  and  that  winged,  floating  gem,  the  butter- 
fly, innocent  eater  of  nectar  and  lover  of  flowers  ?  What 
bond  of  organic  affinity  could  come  between  that  hideous 
crustacean,  with  sprawling  legs,  satanic  claws,  spines,  and 
bristles,  and  that  strange  protozoon,  whose  "  simple  organi- 
zation is  reducable  to  the  type  of  a  cell  ?"  Only  from  the 
bond  of  that  essential  law,  only  from  the  resistless  despotism 
of  the  powers  which  reign  in  the  world  of  matter  and  the 
primordial  necessities  of  "life,  substance,  and  form."  The 
element  of  generalization  is,  they  are  animals  without  vertebral 
columns,  brains,  or  spinal  cords.  Wondrous  vortex  !  miracu- 
lous cell !  With  symmetry  and  beauty,  the  circulation  through 
the  imperial  structure  of  mammal,  bird,  reptile,  and  fish 
being  accomplished,  we  arrive  in  a  descending  grade  at 
the  consideration  of  an  anomalous  and  peculiar  series 
of  "vortices,"  real  fantastic  tricks,  no  back  bone,  no  brain 

*  Chama  gigas.  "  Specimens  have  been  taken  that  weighed  up- 
ward of  three  hundred  pounds." — CUVIER. 


392  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

or  spinal  cord,  but  mantles  of  stone,  wings  of  purple  and  gold, 
gauze  and  silk,  indurated  skin-skeletons  outside,  crusty  hides 
of  lime  and  leather,  with  strange  articulations,  hardest  shells, 
or  mucous  films,  in  short,  of  mollusk,  lobster,  butterfly,  and 
polypus.  Is  there  no  end  to  this  whirl  ?  where  do  these  animal 
vortices  stop  ?  On  dances  the  enchanted  cell,  down,  down 
through  crawling  worm  and  writhing  zoophyte,  to  the  incon- 
ceivable protozoa,  "  organization,  type  of  a  cell,"*  where  the 
animal  shakes  hands  with  the  vegetable,  and  it  is  asked,  which 
is  the  plant  and  which  is  the  animal,  while  the  microscope 
stands  aghast  over  a  hideous  simplicity,  a  fearful  unity,  and 
that  bridge,  sharper  a  thousand  times  than  the  finest  sword, 
is  passed  between  "man  and  nothingness,"  and  creation 
stands  her  last  trick  detected,  her  last  joke  confessed,  "in- 
finitude within,  infinitude  without." 

Siebold  remarks  :  "  The  invertebrate  animals  are  organ- 
ized after  various  types,  the  limits  of  which  are  not  always 
clearly  defined.  There  is,  therefore,  a  greater  number  of 
classes  among  them  than  among  the  vertebrates.  But,  as 
the  details  of  their  organization  are  yet  but  imperfectly 
known,  they  have  not  been  satisfactorily  classified  in  a  natu- 
ral manner." 

The  arrangement  of  the  invertebrates  in  the  Animal 
Kingdom  of  Baron  Cuvier,  is  the  classification  which  has 
been  in  general  use,  and  is  familiar  to  all.  This  is  the 
distribution  into  divisions  of  Animalia  mollusca,  or  soft 
animals,  Animalia  articulata,  or  articulated  animals,  and 
Animalia  radiata,  or  radiated  animals. 

This  generalization  has  been  used  by  the  greater  number 
of  writers  on  the  subject,  and  its  clever  nomenclature  has 
become  mingled  with  most  of  the  literature  of  that  depart- 
ment. The  microscope,  and  more  recent  scientific  observers, 
have  given  more  elaborate  generalizations  in  this  division 

*  "Siebold,  Kolliker,  and  others,  have  taken  the  ground  that  in- 
dividual animal  forms  may  be  unicellular ;  or,  in  other  words,  that 
an  animal  may  be  composed  of  only  a  single  cell." — Burnett's  Intro- 
ductory Note  to  the  Infusoria. 


INVERTEBRATA.  393 

of  science.  This  instrument  (the  microscope)  is  destined 
to  realize  the  dream  of  the  naturalist,  in  the  registering  of 
organic  forms,  and  now  stands  the  great  sub-soil  plough  in 
the  realms  of  knowledge  intelligible  to  the  senses  of  man. 

The  following  classification  of  invertebrate  animals  is 
used  by  Yon  Siebold  and  Stannius  in  their  "  Comparative 
Anatomy  of  the  Invertebrata,"  translated  from  the  German 
by  Waldo  I.  Burnett,  of  Boston. 

ANIMALIA    EVERTEBRATA. 

INVERTEBRATE  ANIMALS. 
Brain,  spinal  cord,  and  vertebral  column,  absent. 

FIRST  GROUP. 

PROTOZOA. 

Animals  in  which  the  different  systems  of  organs  are  not 
distinctly  separated,  and  whose  irregular  form  and  simple 
organization  is  reducible  to  the  type  of  a  cell. 

CLASS  I.     INFUSORIA. 
CLASS  II.  RHIZOPODA. 

SECOND   GROUP. 

ZOOPHYTA. 

Animals  of  regular  form,  and  whose  organs  are  arranged 
in  a  ray-like  manner  around  a  centre,  or  a  longitudinal  axis ; 
the  central  masses  of  the  nervous  system  forming  a  ring, 
which  encircles  the  oesophagus. 

CLASS  III.  POLYPI. 
CLASS  IV.  ACALEPH^S. 

CLASS   V.      ECHINODERMATA. 

THIRD   GROUP. 

VERMES. 

Animals  with  an  elongated,  symmetrical  body,  and  whose 
organs  are  arranged  along  a  longitudinal  axis  ;  so  that  right 
and  left,  dorsal  and  ventral  aspects  may  be  indicated. 


394  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

The  central  nervous  mass  consists  of  a  cervical  ganglion, 
with  or  without  a  chain  of  abdominal  ganglia. 

CLASS  VI.      HELMINTHES. 
CLASS  VII.    TURBELLARII. 
CLASS  VIII.  ROTATORII. 
CLASS  IX.      ANNULATI. 


FOURTH   GROUP. 

MOLLUSCA. 

Animals  of  a  varied  form,  and  whose  bodies  are  sur- 
rounded by  a  fleshy  mantle.  The  central  nervous  masses 
consist  of  ganglia,  some  of  which  surround  the  oesophagus, 
and  others,  connected  by  nervous  filaments,  are  scattered 
through  the  body. 

CLASS  X.        ACEPHALA. 
CLASS  XI.      CEPHALOPHOEA. 
CLASS  XII.    CEPHALOPODA. 

FIFTH    GROUP. 

ARTHROPODA. 

Animals  having  a  perfectly  symmetrical  form,  and  articu- 
lated organs  of  locomotion.  The  central  masses  of  the 
nervous  system  consist  of  a  ring  of  ganglia  surrounding  the 
oesophagus,  from  which  proceeds  a  chain  of  abdominal 
ganglia. 

CLASS  XIII.  CRUSTACEA. 
CLASS  XIV.  ARACHNIDA. 
CLASS  XV.  INSECTA. 

By  inspecting  the  above  classification  some  conception 
may  be  had  of  the  extent  of  this  division  of  the  animal 
kingdom.  From  Infusoria  to  Insect  is  a  vast  range  of  or- 
ganization, and  all  possible  modification  of  type  and  form 
would  seem  to  have  been  called  into  requisition. 


INVERTEBRATA.  395 

The  very  imperfect  catalogue  of  the  first  great  division  of 
the  animal  kingdom,  the  Anamalia  vertebrata,  or  verte- 
brated  animals,  having  occupied  so  much  space,  it  has  be- 
come necessary  to  postpone,  for  the  present,  any  recitation 
of  the  Invertebrata.  This  is  to  be  regretted,  as  it  is  a  most 
interesting  department  of  nature,  full  of  suggestions  to  the 
contemplative  mind,  and  fraught  with  never-failing  attrac- 
tions to  the  scientific  observer.  The  mountain  is  furnished 
with  a  goodly  array  of  species  of  invertebrates,  the  cata- 
logue of  which  will  be  published  in  another  form  at  an- 
other time. 

A  few  words  on  each  separate  department  of  this  great 
division  of  animals  must  suffice  for  the  present.  And  first, 
of  Malacology,  and  the  relationship  of  the  Mollusca  to  the 
preceding  division  of  vertebrates,  and  the  world. 

Condensed  from  the  illustrious  Cuvier,  the  Mollusk  stands, 
anatomically,  thus, — No  articulated  skeleton,  or  vertebral 
canal ;  nervous  system  not  united  in  brain  and  cord,  but 
in  nervous  masses  in  different  parts  of  the  body,  principal 
of  which  called  brain,  surrounds  the  oesophagus ;  organs  of 
sensation  and  motion  not  uniform  as  in  vertebrates  ;  viscera 
more  irregular,  even  in  structure,  as  heart  and  respiratory 
organs  ;  some  respire  air,  others  water,  salt  and  fresh  ;  ex- 
ternal and  locomotive  organs  generally  on  two  sides  of  an 
axis  ;  circulation  double  ;  blood  white  or  bluish,  with  little 
fibrine ;  veins  are  absorbents ;  muscles  attached  to  skin,  result- 
ing in  harder  tissues  ;  motions,  contractions,  inflexions,  are 
"  prolongations  of  different  parts"  thus,  creeping,  swimming, 
seizing ;  no  levers,  or  articulations  in  limbs ;  move  slowly, 
and  never  per  saltum ;  irritability  great,  even  when  di- 
vided ;  skin  naked,  covered  with  secretion ;  no  olfactories. 
Acephala,  Brachiopoda,  Cirrhopoda,  some  Gasteropoda  and 
Pteropoda  have  no  eyes.  Cephalopoda  have  them,  also  or- 
gans of  hearing,  and  something  like  brain  in  a  cartilaginous 
box  ;  most  have  a  folding  of  skin,  i.e.  mantle,  sometimes  a 
disk,  pipe,  sac,  fin.  Naked  mollusks  have  mantles,  mem- 
branous or  fleshy,  most  have  laminae  of  harder  substances  in 


396  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

them,  increasing  in  extent.  This  substance,  which  is  concealed 
in  mantles  in  the  animal,  styled  naked  mollusk,  when  it 
goes  on  to  form  a  shell  for  use  and  protection,  is  called 
Testaceous.  The  "  variety  in  form,  color,  substance,  bril- 
liancy of  shells,  is  endless."  All  styles  of  mastication  and 
deglutition  exist  in  mollusks  ;  stomachs  simple,  multiple,  or 
provided  with  special  instrumentalities.  As  animals,  they  are 
but  slightly  developed,  have  little  industry,  and  only  pre- 
served from  annihilation  by  "fecundity  and  vital  tenacity." 

By  referring  to  the  classification  of  Siebold,  it  will  be 
seen  that  he  distributes  the  Mollusks  into  three  classes, 
namely,  Acephala,  Cephalophora,  and  Cephalopoda. 

Cuvier  separated  the  Mollusca  into  six  classes,  namely, 
the  Cephalopoda,  Pteropoda,  Gasteropoda,  Acephala,  Bra- 
chiopoda,  and  Cirropoda. 

CLASSES  I.  and  II.,  or  Cephalopoda  and  Pteropoda,  exist 
only  in  the  sea. 

CLASS  III. — Gasteropoda.  ORDER  I. — Pulmonea.  Some 
of  this  order  are  terrestrial,  others  aquatic,  the  latter  of 
"  which  are  required  to  come  to  the  surface  of  the  water 
they  inhabit  to  breathe."  Of  the  terrestrial  Pulmonea  the 
mountain  has  many  representatives.  By  consulting  the 
beautifully -elaborated  monograph  of  Dr.  Binney,  on  the 
"  Terrestrial  Air-Breathing  Mollusks  of  the  United  States," 
in  three  volumes,  and  still  not  finished,*  some  conception 
may  be  formed  of  the  extent  of  this  group  of  animals. 
The  following  is  his  tabular  classification  of  the  Pneumo- 
branchiate  Mollusca : — 

*  It  will  give  the  naturalists  of  the  United  States  much  pleasure 
to  be  assured  that  this  splendid  work  is  to  be  continued,  and  it  is 
hoped  finished,  by  the  industrious  and  accomplished  son  of  Dr,  Bin- 
ney, "Win.  G.  Binney,  of  Burlington,  New  Jersey. 


INVEBTEBRATA. 


397 


Pneumobranchiate 
Mollusca. 


SECT.  I. 

Terrestrial. 

Living  upon 

the  land. 


FAMILIES.  GENERA. 

f  Vaginulus. 
,  T  .        . ,        J  Tebennophorus. 

^  Limax. 

fVitrina. 
Succinea. 
Helix. 
Bulimus. 
[_  Glandina. 

{Cylindrella. 
Pupa. 
Vertigo. 


TLimnea. 
SECT.  n.       f  Limneacte 


L   the  waters.       Auriculadse  .  Auricuia. 


TERRESTRIAL  MOLLUSKS. 

The  Alleghany  in  Pennsylvania  is  within  Dr.  Binney's 
geographic  distribution,  Section  No.  4,  or  the  "  northern  in- 
terior section,"  which  ''includes  the  country  between  the 
Ohio  River  and  the  Great  Lakes,  and  between  North  Caro- 
lina and  New  York  and  Vermont.  It  extends  west  of  the 
Mississippi  River."  This  region,  from  its  geology,  climate, 
soil,  and  vegetation,  would  seem  to  be  extremely  favorable 
to  the  existence  and  increase  of  terrestrial  mollusks.  Dr. 
Binney  says,  volume  first,  page  124,  of  this  section,  "Va- 
ginulus,  Glandina,  Helicina,  the  larger  species  of  Bulimus, 
and  Cyclostoma,  restrained  by  climatal  influences,  have  dis- 
appeared ;  but  the  majority  of  the  species  of  Helix,  Suc- 
cinea, Pepa,  and  Yertigo,  flourish  in  great  numbers,  and  all 

34 


398  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

the  naked  slugs,  both  native  and  introduced,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  Yaginulus,  are  found.  It  would  seem  to  be  the 
great  central  focus  of  all  these  genera,  from  which  they 
radiate  into  the  other  sections." 

Some  of  the  Helices  are  universally  diffused,  as  labyrin- 
thica,  from  Florida  to  Maine,  also  Helix  minuscula,  and 
Pupa  contracta,  rupicola,  and  exigua. 

In  the  distribution  of  the  genera  and  species  of  this  geo- 
graphic section,  page  129,  Dr.  Binney  gives  the  following 
synopsis,  the  foreign  species  being  printed  in  italics : — 

"  Tebennophorus  carolinensis. 

"  Arion  hortensis. 

"  Limax  agrestis,  campestris,  variegatus. 

"  Succinea  avara,  aurea,  obliqua,  ovalis,  putris. 

"  Bulimus  lubricus,  fallax,  exiguus. 

"  Helix  albolabris,  alternata,  appressa,  arborea,  cellaria, 
chersina,  clausa,  concava,  demissa,  dentifera,  electrina,  ele- 
vata,  exoleta,  fallax,  fuliginosa,  hirsuta,  hortensis,  indentata, 
inflecta,  inornata,  interna,  intertexta,  labyrinthica,  ligera, 
lirnatula,  lineata,  lucida,  minuscula,  monodon,  multidentata, 
multilineata,  palliata,  pennsylvanica,  perspectiva,  profunda, 
pulchella,  sayi,  solitaria,  striatella,  suppressa,  thyroidus, 
tridentata. 

"  Pupa  armifera,  badia,  corticaria,  contracta,  rupicola. 

"Vertigo  decora,  gouldii,  milium,  ovata,  pentodon." 

Most  of  these  animals  are  inhabitants  of  forests  ;  some  of 
gardens  and  houses,  even  towns  and  cities. 

Family  I. — LIMACID^E.  Slugs. — These  are  the  slugs,  or 
snails  without  shells,  as  they  are  commonly  called.  They 
do  not  go  very  far  north  or  south,  but  abound  in  the  tem- 
perate latitudes.  Their  slimy  trails  are  found  over  logs, 
stones,  walls,  fences,  etc.  Many  of  them  are  injurious  and 
destructive  in  gardens,  having  nocturnal  habits,  and  being 
extremely  difficult  of  detection  in  their  devastations.  They 
endure  much  cold,  but  do  not  hybernate  like  the  snails. 
Wonderful  stories  are  told  of  slugs  and  snails,  of  their  varied 
qualities  and  strange  powers  of  instinct.  They  have  been 


INVERTEBRATA.  399 

used  as  food,  medicine,  agents  of  telegraphic  communication, 
and  stand  as  the  general  symbols  of  utter  beastiality  in  the 
doleful  region  of . 

Of  the  family  of  Lamacidae,  Binney  makes  four  genera, 
namely,  Yaginulus,  Tebennophorus,  Arion,  and  Limax,  and 
affirms,  "we  have,  then,  not  even  one  genus  which  is  un- 
questionably indigenous  to  our  territory."  The  mountain 
has  the  following  genera  and  species  : — 

TEBENNOPHORUS  caroliniensis,  (Bosc.) — This  is  a  very 
common  slug  in  the  deep  forests  on  decayed  wood  and  bark, 
where  it  is  often  four  inches  long. 

LIMAX  campestris,  (Bin.) — Found  in  the  forests  and 
among  rocks  and  logs.  Binney  remarks  :  "  From  its  wide 
distribution,  it  would  seem  to  be  indigenous." 

Family  HELICID^.  Snails. — The  animals  of  this  group 
have  shells,  are  herbivorous  and  carnivorous,  and  are  found 
within  the  tropics,  as  well  as  temperate  regions,  but  are  more 
abundant  in  hot  climates,  decreasing  in  frequency  in  tem- 
perate and  frigid  regions.  Some  of  the  genera  are  north- 
ern, some  southern  exclusively.  The  family  incline  to  forest 
residences,  domiciliating  on  fallen  leaves,  trunks,  branches, 
and  rocks. 

SUCCINEA. — Small  shells  like  snails,  but  shorter,  "  ovate 
conic,  generally  amber-colored,  thin,  translucent,"  and  they 
are  found  over  every  part  of  the  temperate  zone.  Habits, 
like  the  genus  Helix.  Succinea  obliqua,  (Say.)  Wide 
range.  S.  avara,  (Say.)  Common.  S.  ovalis,  (Gould.)  (?) 

HELIX. — These  animals  have  been  called  cosmopolite, 
from  the  universality  of  their  diffusion.  They  occupy  every 
part  of  the  United  States,  and  are  abundant  in  Pennsyl- 
vania. They  inhabit  the  forests  of  the  mountain  in  great 
numbers ;  live  on  vegetables,  hiding  under  logs,  bark,  leaves, 
stones,  and  grass,  and  affecting  darkness  and  dampness. 

The  following  species  are  found  in  Pennsylvania,  and 
many  of  them  on  the  Alleghany,  including  its  eastern  and 
western  bases : — 


400  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

Helix  albolabris,  multilineata,  (not  east  of  Alleghany,) 
pennsylvanica,  thyroidus,  dentifera,  palliata,  appressa,  mono- 
don,  hirsuta,  concava,  pulchella,  profunda,  sayi,  tridentata, 
labyrinthica,  intertexta,  alternata,  fuliginosa,  inonata,  cel- 
laria,  arborea,  indentata,  interna,  suppressa,  lineata. 

BULIMUS. — General  character,  like  Helix.  Most  of  them 
belong  to  the  tropics. 

BULIMUS  lubricus,  (Mul.) — Of  this  shell  Binney  remarks  : 
"  This  little  species,  which  is  hardly  larger  than  a  grain  of 
wheat,  is  certainly  identical  with  the  European  shell.  It  has 
a  vast  range,  being  found  on  the  bark  and  leaves  of  decay- 
ing trees  in  forests  and  groves."  It  is  recognized  by  its 
"peculiarly  brilliant  reflections." 

BULIMUS  exiguus,  (Say.) — The  " length  of  this  species  is 
one-fifteenth,  breadth,  one-fortieth  of  an  inch."  This  ex- 
ceedingly minute  shell  has  a  wide  range,  "being  common  in 
all  the  Northern  and  Middle  States."  "Found  under  stones, 
wood,  and  moss,  in  damp  places." 

BULIMUS  fallax,  (Gould.) — A  very  small  shell;  "length, 
one-fifth,  diameter,  one-fifteenth  of  an  inch."  Wide  range. 
These  are  the  only  species  noticed  on  the  Alleghany. 

PUPA. — "  Shells  elongated,  cylindrical  or  accuminate  with 
numerous  whorls,"  etc.  This  genus  is  widely  distributed 
over  the  globe.  Many  of  these  little  shells  are  very  beau- 
tiful when  examined  closely,  but  from  their  minuteness,  re- 
quire great  care  to  find  or  examine  them.  They  live  under 
fallen  leaves,  branches,  and  bark  that  is  decaying,  also  on 
stumps  and  logs  in  forests ;  others  on  moss,  stones,  etc.  in 
fields  ;  others  about  water  and  swamps,  seeming  to  require 
much  moisture  for  their  comfort.  "  They  feed  on  decaying 
vegetables,  keeping  in  the  shade  and  hidden."  "In  winter 
they  bury  themselves  in  the  earth  or  under  the  leaves." 

PUPA  armifera,  (Say.) — "Length,  three-sixteenths  of  an 
inch  ;  diameter,  half  of  the  length. "  This  the  largest  spe- 
cies, though  a  small  shell,  and  common. 

PUPA  contracta,  (Say.) — "Length,  one-tenth,  diameter, 


INVERTEBRATA.  401 

one-twentieth  of  an  inch."  This  is  the  commonest  species 
of  Pupa. 

PUPA  pentodon,  (Say.) — Length,  one-twelfth  of  an  inch. 
This  is  a  widely-distributed  shell.  It  lives  in  woods,  under 
leaves,  and  on  the  roots  of  trees.  These  three  species  in- 
habit the  mountain. 

YERTIGO  ovata,  (Say.) — "Length,  three-fortieths,  trans- 
verse diameter,  one-twenty-fifth  of  an  inch."  Wide  range. 
"It  is  somewhat  aquatic  in  its  habits." 

PUPA  corticaria,  (Say.)  —  Length,  one-tenth,  diameter, 
one-twentieth  of  an  inch.  These  minute  shells  are  found  on 
the  Alleghany,  and  its  eastern  and  western  slopes. 


FRESH  WATER   PULMONATA. 

(Family  Limniadae.) 

This  family  is  wholly  fluviatile. 

PLANORBIS,  (Lamarck.) — "  Shell  discoidal  sinistral ;  spire 
depressed  or  concave,  exhibiting  the  whorls  above  and  be- 
low;" fresh  water.  Dekay  reports,  as  belonging  to  New 
York,  and  probably  Northern  and  Middle  States,  the  fol- 
lowing list  of  species  :  Planorbis  trivolvis,  bicarinatus,  len- 
tus,  megastoma,  (thin,  delicate  shell,)  parvus,  corpulentus, 
deflectus,  dilatatus,  which  "  occurs  from  Massachusetts  to 
Maryland  and  Ohio."  Several  of  this  genus  are  on  the 
mountain.  - 

LIMNEA,  (Lam.)  —  "Animal  spiral,  elongated,  or  oval." 
Dekay  has  catalogued  the  following  species  :  Limnea  catas- 
copia,  ("from  Massachusetts  to  Delaware  and  West,")  fra- 
gilis,  umbrosa,  caperata,  pallida,  megasoma,  gracilis,  humilis, 
reflexa,  columella,  emarginata,  (a  boreal  species  extending 
South,)  desidiosa,  juglaris,  appressa. 

PHYSA,  (Drap.) — "Animal  oval,  more  or  less  spiral." 
Of  this  genus  Dekay  reports  species  heterostropha,  planor- 
bula,  cylindrica,  elliptica,  plicata,  obesa,  ancillaria,  glabra, 
aurea;  elongata. 

34* 


402  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

In  the  monograph  of  S.  S.  Haldeman  on  the  Limniadas 
and  other  fresh-water  univalve  shells,  we  have  the  following 
mollusks  registered  as  belonging  to  the  geographic  range  of 
Pennsylvania,  some  quoted  only  in  the  eastern  part  of  the 
State. 

PHYSA  heterostropha,  (Say.) — Range,  from  latitude  31° 
to  St.  Lawrence  and  Great  Lakes. 

LIMNEA  desidiosa,  (Say.) — Range,  latitude  35°  to  45°, 
and  from  New  England  to  Mississippi  River.  In  fresh- 
water streams  and  lakes. 

LIMNEA  carperata,  (Say.) — Eastern  Pennsylvania. 

LIMNEA  columella,  (Say.) — Pennsylvania. 

PLANORBIS  bicarinatus,  (Say.) — New  England  to  Georgia 
and  Tennessee. 

PLANORBIS  parvus,  (Say.) — Eastern,  Middle,  and  Western 
States. 

PLANORBIS  armigerus,  (Say.)  —  Eastern,  Middle,  and 
Western  States. 

AMNICOLA  decisa,  (Hald.) — In  "streams  connected  with 
the  Susquehanna." 

AMNICOLA  limosa,  (Say.) — Maine  to  Pennsylvania  and 
Ohio. 

AMNTCOLA  lapidaria,  (Say.) — East  and  west  of  Alleghany 
Mountain. 

YALVATA  tricarinata,  (Say.) — New  England  and  Middle 
States. 

Many  of  these  species  are  found  on  the  mountain,  or  in 
the  waters  at  the  eastern  or  western  base,  as  already  re- 
marked. 

Dekay's  catalogue  of  the  Limniadae  of  New  York  is  a  much 
more  extensive  list  than  Haldeman  has  given  to  Pennsyl- 
vania. It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  the  mono- 
graph of  Haldeman  was  published  in  1840,  and  Dekay's  in 
1843. 

The  next  order  of  Gasteropoda  is  the  PECTINIBRAN- 
CHIA. 


INVERTEBRATA.  403 

Family  TURBINID^E. 

PALUDINA  disscisa. — Dekay  quotes  this  as  "the  com- 
monest species  in  New  York;"  and  extra-limital  species 
lapidaria,  subcarinata,  as  belonging  to  Pennsylvania. 

MELANIA. — This  genus  abounds  in  Western  and  Southern 
States.  Dekay  recites  ninety-two  extra-limital  species,  and 
but  few  Northern  species.  A  few  of  this  family  exist  in 
the  waters  of  the  mountain.  This  ends  the  list  of  Gastero- 
poda. 

CLASS  IV.—  ACEPHALA. 

(No  head.) 
This  class  are  all  aquatic. 

ORDER  I. — ACEPHALA  TESTACEA. 

Embraces  all  bivalves  and  some  multivalves. 

Family  I. — OSTRACEA.     Marine.* 

Family  II. — MYTILACEA.     Muscles. 

ANODENTA,  (Brug.)     Inhabit  fresh  water. 

UNIO,  (Brug.)  Inhabit  fresh  water.  Now  belonging  to 
the  Family  Naiades,  (Lamark.)  This  family,  in  the  details 
of  its  organization,  has  been  elaborated  with  wonder- 
ful perseverance  and  zeal  by  Mr.  Isaac  Lea,  President  of 
the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia.  His 
synopsis  of  the  Family  of  Naiades  is  one  of  the  most  per- 
fect monographs,  on  natural  science,  in  existence,  and  like 
all  products  of  enthusiasm,  bears  upon  it  the  stamp  of  de- 
votion and  love  to  the  subject.  His  extensive  catalogues 
illustrate  the  results  of  the  confusion  of  interminable  syn- 

*  Some  eighty  species  of  oysters  have  been  described.  Lamark 
gives  three  species,  borealis,  virginica,  and  canadensis,  to  the  Amer- 
ican coast,  and  Dekay  "  confesses  his  inability  to  find  more  than 
one,  and  that,  under  certain  forms,  cannot  distinguish  from  the 
common  oyster  of  Europe."  The  oyster  flourishes  best  (Dekay)  be- 
tween the  36°  and  42°  of  north  latitude.  It  is  said  to  live  "twelve 
or  fifteen  years,  and  to  be  in  best  condition  from  the  fourth  to  the 
sixth  year." 


404  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

onomies,  and  the  endless  propagation  of  names  by  natural- 
ists ambitious  to  pile  up  new  species.  The  gauntlet  which 
one  shell  (the  Anodonta  cygnea)  has  run,  is  a  curious  com- 
ment upon  this  subject.  This  single  species  has  been  de- 
scribed and  catalogued  under  five  different  genera,  with 
seventy-five  specific  names,  by  seventy-six  different  authors. 
The  following  table  will  show  the  present  disposition  of  the 
family  as  arranged  with  great  labor  by  Mr.  Lea : — 

FAMILY  NAIADES. 

I.  GENUS  MARGARON  : 

1.  Subgenus  Triquetra, 

Having  a  cardinal  and  lateral  tooth,  and  furnished  with  two 
siphons. 

2.  Subgenus  Prisodon, 

Having  a  cardinal  and  lateral  tooth  transversely  striate, 
and  furnished  with  tAvo  siphons. 

3.  Subgenous  Unio, 

Having  a  cardinal  and  lateral  tooth. 

4.  Subgenus  Margaritana, 

Having  one  tooth  (cardinal.) 

5.  Subgenus  Monocondyloea, 

Having  a  simple  callus. 

6.  Subgenus  Dipsas, 

Having  a  linear  tooth  under  the  dorsal  margin. 

t.   Subgenus  Anodonta, 
Having  no  teeth. 

II.  GENUS  PLATIRIS  : 

1.  Subgenus  Iridina, 

Having  a  granulate  dorsal  margin,  and  furnished  with  two 
siphons. 

2.  Subgenus  Spatha, 

Having  a  dorsal  margin  non-crenulate,  and  furnished  with 
two  siphons. 

3.  Subgenus  Mycetopus, 

Having  a  straight,  smooth,  dorsal  margin,  and  furnish^ 
with  a  long  extensile  foot. 


INVERTEBRATA.  405 

Some  conception  of  the  extent  of  this  group  of  shells 
may  be  formed,  when  the  statement  is  made,  that  one  of  the 
subgenera,  Unio,  has  nearly  four  hundred  species  on  the 
continent  of  North  America.*  Many  species  of  this  sub- 
genus  are  found  in  the  fresh  waters  of  the  mountain  slopes, 
but  they  do  not  ascend  to  the  highest  runs  near  the  summit. 

Subgenus  Anodonta  has  forty -three  North  American 
species,  and  subgenus  Margaritana  sixteen  North  Ameri- 
can species.  These  have  representatives  in  the  mountain 
streams. 

Family  CYCLAD^E. 

CYCLAS,  (Lam.) — Dekay  enumerates  several  species  of 
Cyclas  as  belonging  to  New  York.  The  similis  is  found  in 
ponds  and  streams  of  every  part  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
also  dubia.  The  Partumeia  in  swamps  and  sluggish  streams, 
also  in  every  part  of  the  State.  He  enumerates  the  rhom- 
boides,  elegans,  and  edentula. 

CLASS  Y.— BRACHIOPODA. 
This  class  contains  but  few  shells,  all  of  which  are  marine. 

CLASS  VI.— CIRROPODA. 

This  last  division  of  the  mollusks  contains  the  smallest 
number  of  species.  They  belong  to  the  ocean. 

*  These  facts  are  taken  from  Mr.  Lea's  Synopsis,  third  edition, 
1852.  Since  then  he  has  described  over  one  hundred  species  of 
Unionidse  indigenous  to  our  country,  and  added  greatly  to  the  foreign 
synonomy,  all  of  which  he  will  publish  in  the  fourth  edition,  now  in 
preparation. 


406  THE    MOUNTAIN. 


THIRD   GREAT  DIVISION  OF  THE   ANIMAL 
KINGDOM;   OR,  ANIMALIA  ARTICULATA. 


OP  this  division  Cuvier  observes :  "  This  third  general 
form  is  as  well  characterized  as  that  of  the  Vertebrata ;  the 
skeleton  is  not  internal  as  in  the  latter,  neither  is  it  annihi- 
lated as  in  the  Mollusca,  the  articulated  rings  which  encircle 
the  body,  and  frequently  the  limbs,  supply  the  place  of  it, 
and  as  they  are  usually  hard,  they  furnish  to  the  powers  of 
motion  all  requisite  points  of  support,  so  that  here,  as  among 
the  vertebrata,  we  find  the  walk,  the  run,  the  leap,  natation, 
and  flight." 

The  Articulata  are  distributed  into  four  classes.  These 
are  the  Annulata,  Crustacea,  Arachnides,  and  Insecta. 


CLASS  I.— ANNULATA. 

Only  Invertebrates  with  red  blood.  Nearly  all  inhabit 
water,  the  earth-worms  excepted.  This  class  is  divided  into 
three  orders,  based  on  organs  of  respiration. 

ORDER  I. — TUBICOLA. 

Mostly  inhabit  tubes.  Breathing  arrangement,  tufts  or 
arbusculae  attached  to  head.  These  sea-worms  are  numer- 
ous, living  in  mud  or  sand,  and  making  tubes  of  lime  and 
other  substances. 

ORDER  II. — DORSIBRANCHTATA. 

Branchiae  or  breathing  organs  distributed  along  the  body, 
arborescent,  or  tuft-like  in  shape,  "ramified  in  laminae  or 


INVERTEBRATA.  407 

tubercles."  They  swim  in  the  ocean  or  live  in  the  mud, 
rarely  with  tubes.  This  is  an  extensive  order,  and  has 
many  genera  over  the  world. 

ORDER  III. — ABRANCHIATA. 

No  visible  branchiae,  respire  "  by  the  surface  of  skin  or  in- 
ternal cavities."  Live  in  water,  mud,  and  moist  earth. 
This  order  has  two  families.  The  first  embraces  the  com- 
mon earth-worm,  Lumbicus  terrestris,  known  to  all ;  and  the 
second,  the  genus  Hirudo,  or  Leeches.  One  species  of 
Hirudo  is  found  in  the  waters  of  the  mountain. 

The  next  three  classes  of  animals,  form  the  fifth  division 
of  Siebold,  or  Arihropoda. 


CLASS  II.— CRUSTACEA. 

This  class  is  separated  into  two  sections,  the  Malacostraca 
and  Entomostraca,. 

FIRST  DIVISION. — MALACOSTRACA,  group  a,  "  eyes  placed 
on  a  movable  and  articulated  pedicle." 

• 
ORDER  I. — DECAPODA,  (Ten-footed.) 

This  order  embraces  the  large,  and  some  of  them  useful 
crustaceans.  They  usually  inhabit  water,  and  are  carnivorous 
and  voracious. 

Family  I. — BRACHYURA,  short  tailed.  This  family  em- 
braces but  one  genus  of  crabs. 

Family  II. — MACROURA,  long  tailed.  Cuvier,  with  De 
Geer  and  Gronovius,  fixes  this  group  into  a  single  genus, 
Astacus.  There  are  several  subgenera,  which  contain  the 
common  hermit  crab,  (Cancer  bernhardus,  Linn.,)  the  com- 
mon lobster,  (Astacus  marinus,)  Homerus  Americanus,  and 
the  fresh-water  crabs,  or  craw-fish. 

ASTACUS  bartonii.  Fresh- water  lobster,  craw-fish. — This 
crustacean  is  common  in  all  the  streams  of  the  mountain. 
It  is  said  to  have  "  nocturnal  habits,  concealing  itself  by 
day,"  etc.  This  does  not  seem  to  be  exclusively  his  habit ; 


408  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

he,  as  may  be  seen  at  almost  any  time,  groping  around  on 
the  bottom  of  runs,  or  sliding,  head  or  tail  first,  as  best 
suits  him,  along  the  edges  of  stones  and  roots,  or  in  the 
mud.  He  is  rather  pugnacious,  and  very  quickly  seizes  on 
anything  that  falls  in  the  water.  It  has  a  wide  geographic 
range,  and  is  exclusively  fluviatile.  Length,  3J  inches. 

ORDER  II. — STOMAPODA. 

This  is  divided  into  two  families,  Unipeltata,  Bipeltata, 
and  into  genera  and  species,  all  of  which  are  marine. 

MALACOSTRACA,  group  6,  eyes  sessile  and  immovable.  This 
division  of  crustaceans  is  small.  They  inhabit  the  sea-coast, 
also  fresh  water,  and  some  are  terrestrial  and  parasitical. 

ORDER  III. — AMPHIPODA. 

Most  of  this  order  inhabit  salt  water ;  some,  however, 
are  found  in  springs  and  rivulets.  Some  of  this  group,  be- 
longing to  the  sea,  are  the  most  ferocious  and  ravenous  of 
the  crustaceans. 

GAMMARUS  minus.  Fresh-water  shrimp. — This  is  a  com- 
mon animal  in  fresh-water  streams  under  stones  and  roots. 
"  It  is  quick  and  lively  in  its  motions,  and  altogether  an 
interesting  creature. " 

GAMMARUS  fasciatus  is  quoted  as  a  Pennsylvania  species. 

ORDER  IY. — LOSMIPODA,  (Throat-footed.) 
This  order  is  exclusively  marine. 

ORDER  Y. — ISOPODA,  (Equal-footed.) 
Most  of  this  order  are  aquatic,  some  terrestrial,  and  some 
are  parasitical.    Among  the  terrestrial  are  the  species  of  the 
genus  Oniscus,  or  wood-lice. 

ASELLTJS  communis.  —  This  is  a  little  fresh-water  crus- 
tacean, common  in  runs  and  found  under  stones. 

ONISCUS  asellus.     The  sow-bug,  or,  as  it  is  commonly 


INVERTEBRATA.  409 

called,  the  wood-louse,  is  found  every  place,  in  cellars  and 
gardens,  under  stones,  logs,  etc.  Its  food  is  decomposing 
vegetable  matter.  "  The  female  carries  her  eggs  in  an  oval 
sack  beneath,  where  they  are  hatched  " 

PORCELLIO  spinicornis. — This  is  also  called  the  sow-bug. 
It  has  the  same  habits  as  the  Oniscus. 

SECOND  DIVISION. — ENTOMOSTRACA,  called  by  the  older 
naturalists,  insects  with  shells.  This  group  of  animals  is 
aquatic,  inhabiting  fresh  water,  and  is  generally  micro- 
scopic. They  have  peculiar  organizations,  and  sometimes 
possess  a  hundred  feet. 

ORDER  I. — BRANCHIOPODA,  (Gill-footed.) 
Mostly  microscopical.     The  old  genus  Monoculus,  Linn., 
belongs  here. 

ORDER  II. — PCECILOPODA,  (Yarious-footed.) 

Their  habitat  is  said  to  be  on  aquatic  animals,  and  gene- 
rally on  fishes.  This  order  is  divided  into  two  families — 
First,  Xiphosura,  in  which  is  the  genus  Limulus ;  and 
second,  Siphonostoma.  There  are  two  genera  of  this  order, 
and  they  are  parasitical ;  one,  the  Caligus,  is  called  the  Fish- 
louse. 

This  is  the  old  Cuvierian  arrangement  of  the  crustaceans. 
The  area  of  knowledge  in  this  department  has  been  im- 
mensely enlarged  since  this  classification  was  made. 

More  recent  classifications  of  the  crustaceans  place  a  new 
group  between  Brachyura  and  Macrura  of  the  first  order 
Decapoda,  called  Anomura ;  also,  next  to  Po3cilopoda,  an 
order  Fhyllopoda,  Lophyropa,  Branchiopoda,  (old,)  which 
contains  Branchipus  stagnalis,  "  common  in  most  stagnant 
pools  of  fresh  water,"  and  lastly,  order  Ostrapoda,  many  of 
which  are  also  found  in  fresh  water  pools. 

New  and  vigorous  laborers  are  now  in  the  field  with  the 
enthusiasm  of  youth,*  with  culture  and  genius,  and  the  hope 
of  the  science  of  the  hour  is,  that  this  wonderful  world  of 

*  The  accomplished  and  ingenuous  youth,  Wm.  Stimpson,  is  doing 
good  work  in  this  department.  Long  arid  successfully  may  he  labor. 

35 


410  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

curious  and  extraordinary  animals  will  be  finally  explored, 
and  rendered  accessible  to  all  students  of  nature.  The 
mountain  has  but  few  crustaceans.  They  are,  however,  of 
great  interest,  and  their  story  will  hereafter  be  told.* 

CLASS  IIL—ARACHNIDA. 

"  This  class  includes  the  various  articulate  forms  known 
as  spiders,  mites,  and  scorpions,  the  characters  of  which 
place  them  between  the  Crustacea  and  Insecta.  In  general, 
the  head  is  not  distinct  from  the  thorax,  but  intimately  con- 
nected with  it,  forming  a  large  segment  named  the  cephalo 
thorax,  which  is  followed  by  the  abdomen,  and  this  is  either 
distinct  or  united  in  a  single  piece  with  the  former.  These 
animals  are  not  subject  to  a  perfect  metamorphosis,  but  they 
have,  in  some  cases,  a  partial  one.  They  have  neither  wings, 
antennae,  nor  upper  lip  ;  feet,  eight,  affixed  to  the  sternum ; 
mouth  provided  with  a  pair  of  mandibles  or  chelicera ;  eyes 
simple,  two  to  eight,  position  and  number  much  used  as 
generic  characters.  Most  of  the  Arachnida  feed  upon  fresh 
animal  food,  as  insects,  which  they  take  alive  either  in  nets, 
or  by  running  or  suddenly  leaping  upon  them.  Some  are 
parasitic,  others  live  in  meat,  cheese,  figs,  and  flour.  They 
are  mostly  oviparous,  and,  like  the  Crustacea,  moult  or 
change  their  integument  from  time  to  time."f 

The  class  Arachnida  is  divided  into  two  orders,  Pulmo- 
narise  and  Trachearioa.J  The  first  is  characterized  as  hav- 
ing "pulmonary  sacks,  and  six  or  eight  simple  eyes."  The 
second  respire  by  "  tracheae,  have  no  organs  of  circulation, 
or  incomplete  ones ;  the  tracheae  divide  into  branches,  which, 
unlike  the  insect,  do  not  run  parallel  to  each  other,  the 
whole  body  receiving  air  from  various  points  by  stigmata ; 
ocelli  four  at  most." 

*  Heck,  pp.  118,  119,  vol.  ii. 

f  According  to  Heck,  the  class  is  divisible  into  three  sections, 
Aporobranchia,  Trachearia,  and  Pulmonaria. 

£  The  ancient,  order  of  fossil  crustaceans,  called  Trilobites,  belong 
here.  Many  localities  of  this  interesting  fossil  are  found  near  the 
eastern  base  of  the  Alleghany  Mountain. 


INVERTEBRATA,  411 

Family  I. — ARANEIDES. 
ORDER  Y. — DIMEROSOMATA.     (Heck.) 

This  is  the  family  of  spiders,  or  the  genus  Aranea  of 
Linnaeus.  In  their  anatomy,  their  natural  association  with 
other  animals,  their  physiological  peculiarities,  and  special 
characteristics,  no  division  of  zoology  is  more  attractive, 
scientifically.  Devilish,  for  they  possess  venom  ;  ugly,  for 
who  does  not  hate  a  spider,  (except  the  true  naturalist  or  lover 
of  God  ?)  and  repulsive  from  their  habits,  for  who  does  not 
abhor  the  idea  of  a  trap,  and  of  the  keeper  of  a  trap, — whe- 
ther baited  with  jewelry  or  rags,  brandy  or  green  turtle, 
corsets  or  crinoline,  satin  or  the  slimy  silk  of  the  spider's 
web  ?  still,  as  filling  "  a  yawning  need  of  nature,"  to  the  eye 
of  science,  the  Araneides  are  as  wonderful  and  attractive  as 
the  animals  over  whose  structure  taste  and  beauty  preside. 

They  have  "two  cords  of  a  nervous  system,  and  ganglions 
which  distribute  nerves  to  the  various  organs."  Their  eyes, 
simple  ocelli,  according  to  Dufour,  "shine  in  darkness  like 
those  of  the  cat,  and  most  probably  enjoy  the  faculty  of  both 
nocturnal  and  diurnal  vision."  There  maybe  some  large 
economy  in  giving  to  spiders  the  control  of  both  worlds, 
"  night  and  morning,"  but  to  possess  them  also  of  the  fiend- 
ish and  cowardly  element  of  venom,  in  poisoned  swords  and 
spears,  and  supply  them  with  argus  eyes  having  nocturnal 
and  diurnal  vision,  together  with  the  power  of  weaving 
invisible  snares  for  capturing  the  innocent,  unsuspecting 
inhabitants  of  the  air,  must  trouble  much  the  dreams  of  the 
optimist,  whose  solution  of  obscure  points  comes  from  the 
plane  of  the  natural  alone.  Cuvier  remarks:  "I  have  as- 
certained that  a  single  wound  from  a  moderate-sized  spider 
will  kill  the  common  fly  in  a  few  minutes.  It  is  also  certain 
that  the  bite  of  those  large  ones  of  South  America,  which 
are  there  called  crab-spiders,  and  are  placed  by  us  in  the 
genus  Mygale,  kills  the  smaller  vertebrated  animals,  such  as 
humming-birds,  pigeons,  etc.,  and  produce  a  violent  fever  in 
man  ;  the  sting  of  some  species  in  the  south  of  France  has 


412  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

even  occasionally  proved  fatal.  We  may,  therefore,  with- 
out believing  all  the  fabulous  stories  of  Baglivi  and  others 
respecting  the  bite  of  Tarantula,  mistrust  spiders,  and  par- 
ticularly the  larger  ones."  Various  animals  in  turn  prey  on 
spiders  as  part  of  their  food,  as  birds,  wasps,  etc.  Their 
cocoons,  or  the  sacks  which  contain  their  eggs,  are  familiar 
to  all.  "The  texture  and  form  of  these  sacks  are  variously 
modified,  according  to  the  habits  of  the  race.  They  are 
usually  spheroidal ;  some  of  them  resemble  a  cap  or  tymbal, 
some  of  them  are  claviform.  They  are  sometimes  partially 
enveloped  with  foreign  bodies,  such  as  earth,  leaves,  etc.  ;  a 
finer  material,  a  sort  of  tow  or  down,  frequently  surrounds 
the  eggs  in  their  interior,  where  they  are  free  or  aggluti- 
nated, and  more  or  less  numerous."  Spiders  generally  die 
in  winter,  but  some  survive  several  years,  as  the  Mygales, 
Lycosse,  etc.  Notwithstanding  the  revolting  and  ferocious 
character  of  the  spider  as  generally  estimated,  touching 
illustrations  of  the  action  of  the  most  sacred  of  all  in- 
stincts, the  maternal,  have  been  observed  and  described  by 
naturalists.  * 

The  family  Araneides  is  divided  into  a  number  of  genera: 
the  Mygale,  Crab-spiders,  the  Aranea,  including  the  recti- 
grade  and  sedentary  spiders ;  the  Clotho,  a  peculiar  group ; 
the  Tetragnatha,  Uloborus,  Linyphia,  and  Epeira,  with  Ly- 
cosa,  the  common  field  or  ground  spider,  familiar  to  all  among 
the  clods.  There  are  a  number  of  this  family  on  the  moun- 
tain. The  species  that  weave  their  websf  on  the  trees  and 
bushes  abound,  as  may  be  experienced  always  by  passing 
through  the  woods  where  their  invisible  ropes,  stretching 
across  large  spaces,  constantly  tickle  the  face  of  the  traveler. 
The  Lycosa  are  abundant  in  field  and  forest. 

*  For  example,  see  observations  of  Bonnet,  on  the  Lycosa  saccata, 
referred  to  by  Kirby  and  Spence,  p.  204. 

j-  "Leuwenhoeck  has  calculated  that  it  would  require  four  mil- 
lions of  the  strands  of  the  spider's  web  to  form  a  thread  as  thick  as 
»  hair  of  his  beard." 


INVEBTEBRATA.  413 

Family  II. — PEDIPALPI. 

This  group  is  composed,  according  to  Cuvier,  of  two 
satanic  genera,  Tarantula  and  Scorpio.  The  species  of 
these  genera  are  described  as  malignant  and  venomous; 
but  they  do  not  exist  in  temperate  or  northern  latitudes. 

ORDER  II. — TRACHEARIJE. 

This  order  differs  in  organs  of  respiration  and  circulation 
from  the  foregoing.  It  is  divided  into  those  "furnished 
with  chelicera,  two  fingers  of  which  are  movable,"  and  into 
those  in  which  "these  organs  are  replaced  by  simple  laminae, 
or  lancets,  which,  with  the  ligula,  constitute  a  sucker."  These 
animals  are  very  small. 

First  family  of  Cuvier,  Pseudo-Scorpiones,  is  terrestrial, 
and  composed  of  two  genera,  Galeodes  and  Chelifer. 

Second  family,  Pycnogonides.  These  are  marine  animals. 
"They  are  found  among  marine  plants,  sometimes  under 
stones  near  the  beach,  and  occasionally  also  on  the  cetacea." 

Third  family,  Holetra.  This  consists  of  two  tribes, 
the  Phalangium  and  the  Acarus.  The  first  "live  on  the 
ground  at  the  foot  of  trees,  and  on  plants,  and  are  very 
active;  others  conceal  themselves  under  stones  and  moss." 
The  second,  Acarides,  is  composed  of  genera  Acarus,  Trom- 
bidium,  and  Ixodes.  The  first,  small  microscopical,  includes  the 
itch  insect,*  the  "  arcari  of  the  human  psora,"  and  the  mites, 
which  are  "excessively  prolific."  The  second,  Trombidium, 
contains  the  subgenera  Erythrseus,  Gamasus,  Cheyletus,  Ori- 
bata,  Uropoda,  etc.  This  is  the  group  to  which  the  common 
Tick  belongs,  or  the  subgenus  Ixodes.  Of  the  Ixodes,  Cuvier 
remarks  :  "  They  are  found  in  thick  woods,  abounding  in 
brush,  briars,  etc.  They  hook  themselves  to  low  plants  by 
the  hind  legs,  keeping  the  others  extended,  and  fasten  to  dogs, 
oxen,  horses,  and  other  quadrupeds,  and  even  on  the  tortoise, 
burying  their  suckers  so  completely  in  their  flesh  that  they 
can  only  be  detached  by  force." 

*  Sarcoptes  scabiei.  "Itch  is  caused  probably  by  different  spe- 
cies of  Sarcoptes." — H. 

35* 


414  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

The  Arachnides  are  repulsive  creatures,  but  interesting  to 
the  naturalist.* 

CLASS  MYRIAPODA. 

This  class  of  articulata  is  extensively  distributed,  and  has 
many  representatives  on  the  mountain.  They  are  commonly 
called  centipedes  and  millipedes,  or  hundred  and  million 
footed  worms.  The  real  number  of  feet  is  from  "  twelve  to 
upwards  of  three  hundred  pairs."  The  class  contains  two 
orders  :  Chilognatha,  (lip  formed  from  jaws,)  and  Chilopoda, 
(lip  formed  from  feet,)  the  first  order  containing  twenty-one, 
and  the  latter  sixteen  genera.  The  first  order  contains  six 
families,  Glomeridse,  Polyxenidse,  Polydesmidae,  lulidae, 
Polyzonidae,  and  Siphonophoridae.  The  genus  lulus  is  the 
type  of  the  order,  and  is  widely  distributed,  f  The  second 
order  includes  four  families,  Scutigeridae,  Lithobiida3,  Scolo- 
pendridae,  and  Geophilidae.  Some  of  these  are  large  and 
poisonous,  one  being  a  foot  long,  but  they  are  only  found  in 
warm  latitudes.  The  myriapoda  are  terrestrial,  living  in 
dark,  damp  places,  among  moss,  or  under  bark  and  stones, 
some  feeding  upon  animal  food,  and  others  upon  fungi,  fruits 
or  decaying  vegetable  matter.  Some  of  the  species  are 
luminous  at  night  at  certain  seasons,  and  some  secrete  a 
pungent,  penetrating,  and  disagreeable  material,  with  acid 
scent,  but  with  neither  acid  nor  alkaline  qualities.  J 

CLASS  IV.—  INSECTA. 

It  has  been  asserted  that  more  than  one  hundred  thou- 
sand species  of  insects  exist.  This  fact  suggests  a  range  of 
natural  affinities  that  would  appear  endless,  between  this 
class  and  the  surrounding  world,  and  reveals  an  order  of 
final  causes  that  would  seem  infinite  in  its  complexity.  Are 

*  For  spiders  of  the  United  States,  see  Professor  N.  M.  Hentz's 
papers  in  the  Boston  Journal  of  Natural  Sciences. 

f  See  Say,  Journal  of  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  vol.  ii.,  1821. 
J  Heck,  p.  130. 


INVEKTEBRATA.  415 

all,  indeed,  "but  parts  of  one  great  whole  ?"  Each  form 
being  an  indispensable  integer,  amazement  unspeakable 
is  the  only  emotion  which  seizes  the  mind  upon  contem- 
plating this  endless  chain  of  organisms.  The  patterns  of 
Plato's  cave  were  surely  exhausted  here  ;  mechanism  in 
every  possible  form  was  certainly  made  bankrupt  in  this 
series  of  structures.  All  the  elements  are  inhabited  by 
them  ;  old  earth,  and  air,  and  water  are  full  of  them.  They 
infest  all  plants,  all  animals,  and  each  other.  As  the  ancient 
herb-eating  monster  had  a  flesh-eating  brother  to  devour 
him  in  turn,  so  has  the  microscopic  insect  a  sure  and  stead- 
fast friend  sticking  closer  than  a  brother — a  microscopic 
dragon  that  is  certain  at  last  to  swallow  him.  This  compen- 
sative system  is  a  happy  one  for  man,  who  is  so  often  the 
victim  of  the  depredation  of  insects  in  various  ways,  as  they 
divide  the  world  with  him,  being  carnivorous,  herbivorous, 
and  omnivorous.  Thus  is  it,  that  this  eternal  devouring 
throughout  nature  is  rendered  harmonious  in  the  silent 
clock-work  of  the  world ;  by  a  Divine  equation  each  open 
mouth  has  something  to  fill  it,  and  is  sure  to  know  what  has 
been  arranged  for  it ;  and  thus  comes  the  terrific  formula  of 
all  existence, — that  the  universe  is  a  stomach  and  intestine, 
in  which  circulate  peristaltically  palpitating  particles,  still 
crushed  and  consumed,  and  whose  destiny  in  the  system  of 
uses  is  to  serve  a  purpose,  fill  an  end,  in  short,  eat  and  be 
eaten. 

On  what  may  be  styled  the  personal  relationship  of  in- 
sects to  man  there  are  many  curious  chapters,  most  of  which 
are  troublesome  and  offensive,  from  fleas  and  itch-insects 
to  the  pediculus  humanus  and  the  inhabitants  of  unclean 
beds.  Many  bite  venomously ;  others  inflict  poisonous 
wounds  by  stings ;  while  others  revel  in  his  blood,  con- 
stituting the  most  execrable  torments  of  existence.  Of 
these  are  hornets,  yellow-jackets,  and  "infernal  furies;" 
also  wasps,  gnats,  and  flies,  not  forgetting  that  beauti- 
ful and  musical  friend  of  man,  the  charming  mosquito, 
a  word  upon  whom  will  illustrate  the  most  interesting  re- 


416  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

lationship  of  insect  and  man,  or  of  "insects  which  make 
man  their  food." 

This  universally-admired  and  beloved  insect  belongs,  ac- 
cording to  entomologists,  to  the  family  Culicidse  and  genus 
Culex ;  order  Diptera ;  the  numerous  species  of  which  are 
said  to  "cover  the  globe  from  pole  to  pole,  and  from 
east  to  west,  through  both  hemispheres."  The  Culex 
pipiens  is  the  common  mosquito  of  America.  He  derives 
his  specific  name  from  the  music  he  makes,  (particularly 
attractive  in  serenade  ;)  which  piping  is  produced  by  vibra- 
tions of  his  "immaculate  wings,"  executed  at  the  rate, 
according  to  Baron  C.  de  Latour,  of  three  thousand  per 
minute.  This  is  a  great  fact  to  meditate  upon  at  mid- 
night, when  his  touching  song  is  performed,  with  all  its 
variations,  simply  for  one's  amusement.  The  mosquito 
was  noticed  early  by  naturalists :  by  Aristotle  and  Pliny, 
who,  according  to  Kirby,  "  distinguishes  well  between  Hy- 
rnenoptera  and  Diptera,  when  he  says  the  former  have  their 
stings  in  the  tail,  and  the  latter  in  their  mouth  ;  and  that  to 
one  this  weapon  is  given  as  the  instrument  of  vengeance, 
and  to  the  other  of  avidity."  The  interesting  sting  in  the 
mouth  of  this  sweet  singer  is  said  to  be  of  exceeding  in- 
genuity as  a  mechanical  implement,  not  to  speak  of  certain 
venomous  qualities  beside.  "  The  instrument  of  avidity  is 
even  more  terrible  than  that  of  vengeance  in  most  insects 
thus  armed  with  it ;  like  the  latter,  also,  as  appears  from  the 
consequent  inflammation  and  tumor,  it  instills  into  its  wounds 
a  poison ;  the  principal  use  of  which,  however,  is  to  render 
the  blood  more  fluid  and  fitter  for  suction.  This  weapon, 
which  is  more  complex  than  the  sting  of  hymenopterous  in- 
sects, consists  of  five*  pieces  besides  the  exterior  sheath,  some 
of  which  seem  simply  lancets,  while  others  are  barbed  like 
the  spicula  of  a  bee's  sting,  is  at  once  calculated  for  piercing 
the  flesh  and  forming  a  siphon  adapted  to  imbibe  the  blood,  "f 

*  The  rostrum  is  very  long  and  slender,  apparently  simple,  but 
composed  of  seven  organs." — IT. 
f  Kirby  and  Spence. 


INVERTEBRATA.  417 

Again,  this  mouth-sting  and  its  possessor  are  described : 
"  They  (the  mosquitos)  are  provided  with  a  long,  horny, 
stiff,  and  perpendicular  proboscis,  with  antennae  consisting 
of  fourteen  joints,  feathered  on  the  males,  and  with  two 
wings  covered  with  small  scales.  Every  part  of  this  insect, 
when  magnified,  presents  not  only  a  beautiful  and  wonderful 
appearance,  but  cannot  fail  of  exciting  contemplation  of  the 
most  serious  (certainly)  kind.  Indeed,  one  has  no  idea  of 
the  amazing  beauty  of  these  diminutive  creatures  until  he 
has  observed  them  through  a  microscope."*  The  micro- 
scope is  not  required  to  discover  the  "  amazing  beauty"  of 
this  lovely  little  creature  ;  when  he  soars  off,  upon  his  "  im- 
maculate wings,"  filled  with  your  blood,  it  is  visible  to  the 
naked  eye.  The  biographers  of  the  Culex,  and  travelers, 
generally  tell  wonderful  and  hideous  stories  of  him,  from 
the  tropics  where  he  flourishes  vastly,  to  the  region  "  where 
the  polar  winter  extends  its  icy  reign." 

In  the  Crimea,  Russian  soldiers  are  required  to  sleep  in 
sacks  ;  the  "  case-hardened  cuticle  of  the  Laplander"  is  re- 
quired to  be  daubed  with  unguents  of  tar,  fish-grease,  or 
cream,  "  or  wear  nets  steeped  in  fetid  birch-oil  to  protect 
him  from  bites  of  these  blood-suckers."  Travelers  in  warm 
countries  represent  them  as  "demons,"  that  the  sound  they 
make  is  "fearful,"  that  "men  die  of  mortification  of  the 
skin"  from  their  bites,  or  if  they  recover,  look  as  if  they  had 
had  the  small-pox.  Among  Cossack  herdsmen  they  are 
veritable  plagues,  "thousands  of  these  insatiate  monsters 
entering  the  nostrils,  ears,  eyes,  and  mouth  of  the  cattle,  who 
shortly  after  die  of  convulsions,  or  of  secondary  inflamma- 
tion, or  from  absolute  suffocation."  In  certain  countries 
men  are  required  to  travel  with  their  heads  in  bags  and 
hands  in  leather  gloves.  Weld  relates  the  fact  from 
Washington  himself,  "  that  at  one  place  the  mosquitos  were 
so  powerful  as  to  pierce  through  his  boots ;"  and  Humboldt 
informs  us  "that  between  the  little  harbor  of  Higeurote  and 

*  Jaeger. 


418  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Unare  the  wretched  inhabitants  are 
required  to  stretch  themselves  on  the  ground,  and  pass  the 
night  buried  in  the  sand  three  or  four  inches  deep,  leav- 
ing out  the  head  only,  which  they  cover  with  a  handker- 
chief." 

It  appears  the  female  mosquitos  are  the  fiercest  depre- 
dators (only,)*  "attacking  with  most  avidity  the  softer  sex, 
and  trying  their  temper  by  disfiguring  their  beauty  !"f 

The  Culex  deposits  its  eggs  in  stagnant  water,  and  is 
most  numerous  in  wet  seasons.  It  is  said  that  "  six  or  seven 
generations  take  place  in  one  season,  each  female  depositing 
about  three  hundred  eggs,  which,  in  three  or  four  weeks,  be- 
come perfect  flies,  which  again  deposit  eggs,"  etc.  From 
the  eggs  the  larvae  come  out  in  two  days  and  swim  around, 
coming  to  the  surface  to  breathe.  "  In  two  weeks  they 
change  into  the  pupa,  which  still  remains  on  the  surface  of 
the  water,  and,  after  a  week,  bursts  open,  and  the  perfect 
mosquito  flies  out  as  if  shot  from  under  the  water."  Trees 
generally  harbor  gnats  and  mosquitos,  but  it  is  said  the 
horse-chestnut,  planted  about  a  house,  will  drive  them  away. 

*  "  The  male,  which  does  not  sting,  can  be  readily  distinguished  by 
the  feathery  antennae." — HECK. 
f  Kirby  and  Spence. 

Wonderful  is  this  unity  in  the  midst  of  diversity  :  fearful  is  this 
law  of  identity  in  the  domain  of  instinct.     What  now  of  the  doctrines 
of  the  "Feminine  Soul,"  of  the  angelic  instrumentality  of  "Femini- 
city"  as  the  refining  and  saving  influence  of  the  world?     It  appears 
that  woman,  and  the  female  mosquito,  are  under  the  dominion  of  the 
same  barbarous  necessities,  and  held  by  the  same  terrible  stinging 
proclivities,  "  attacking  with  avidity  and  disfiguring  the  softer  sex, 
trying  their  temper  and  beauty."     There  is  one  vast  difference:  mos- 
quito never  stings  mosquito ;  and  of  course  it  was  no  form  of  the 
play  of  this  instinct  that  Byron  divined, — 
"  Gayer  insects  fluttering  by, 
Ne'er  droop  the  wing  o'er  those  that  die, 
And  lovlier  things  have  mercy  shown 
To  every  failing  but  their  own, 
And  every  woe  a  tear  may  claim, 
Except ." 


INVERTEBRATA.  419 

The  mountain  districts,  of  temperate  latitudes,  are  not  so 
obnoxious  to  the  infliction  of  mosquitos  as  flat  or  low 
countries  abounding  in  water.  There  are  but  few  species  of 
the  genus  Culex  on  the  mountains  of  Pennsylvania. 

The  Midge,  or  Tipulidse  family,  is  also  an  interesting 
group  of  diminutive  insects  who  have  friendly  leanings  to- 
ward man.* 

Of  the  spiritual  manifestation  or  the  play  of  the  facul- 
ties of  instinct  of  insects,  many  astonishing  records  are  made 
by  entomologists,  under  the  chapters  of  "Affection  of  insects 
for  their  young  ;"  "  Stratagems  employed  by  insects  in  pro- 
curing food ;"  "Habitations  of  insects  for  their  young  and 
for  their  own  use;"  "Habitations  of  insects  living  in  so- 
ciety;" "Perfect  and  imperfect  societies  of  insects,"  etc. 
These  seem  heads  of  chapters,  not  of  insects,  but  of  men. 
To  read  the  chapters  is  to  doubt  and  wonder,  for  the  fancy 
seems  alone  to  have  created  them ;  and  yet,  these  great 
facts  are  now  the  common  property  of  science,  and  natural- 
ists assert  them  as  the  most  familiar  things.  An  example  is 
found  in  the  wonderfully-organized  kingdom  of  the  honey- 
bee, known  to  all,  but  however  familiar,  seeming  forever  an 
incredible  romance,  for  human  society  has  thus  far  failed  in 
any  comparative  organization.  Was  it  not  a  vain  and  short- 
sighted flash  of  the  poet,  that  the  "  only  study  of  mankind 
is  man"?  The  fact  that  Tumble  Beetles  will  leave  their 
work  and  go  and  help  a  brother  in  trouble  to  roll  his  ball 
when  his  hill  is  too  steep  for  him  to  do  it  alone,  was  no 
doubt  the  origin  of  the  clever  custom  of  log-rolling  among 
Congressmen.  Many  of  the  family  Formicas,  or  Ants,  live 
in  societies,  or  commonwealths,  in  burrows  of  their  own  con- 
struction, or  mounds,  f  or  regular  nests  on  trees  and  rushes. 

*  The  Hessian  fly  belongs  to  this  group. 

f  The  large  mounds  of  the  yellow  American  ant  abound  on  the 
highest  summits  of  the  Alleghany.  They  seem  to  be  filled  by  great 
numbers  of  ants,  and  are  sometimes  three  or  four  feet  in  diameter, 


420  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

From  the  observations  of  Dr.  T.  Savage,  there  are  three  or 
four  grades  of  ants,  namely,  "  neuters,  soldiers,  workers,  and 
carriers."  "  The  genus  Polyergus  make  predatory  excursions 
to  the  nests  of  other  species  and  take  young  workmen  in 
the  pupa  state.  These  captives  assume  their  perfect  state 
in  the  domiciles  of  their  captors,  and  become  the  slaves  of 
the  community.  All  labor  of  building,  collecting  food,  and 
taking  care  of  the  young  falls  upon  them."*  St.  Forgeau 
thinks  the  Polyergus  (ant)  exhibits  the  "perfection  of  in- 
stinct, being  capable  of  laboring,  but  preferring  idleness;" 
while  Huber  asserts  they  have  no  talent  but  for  war,  and 
that  they  would  starve  to  death  but  for  the  working  formica. 
This  "  perfection  of  instinct"  in  the  ant  has  a  terrible  ana- 
logue in  a  larger  ant  called  man,  on  a  larger  ant-hill  called 
the  earth,  and  who  is  supposed  to  be  its  arbiter  and  king, 
under  the  divine  endowments  of  intellect,  morality,  and  re- 
ligion. 

Insects  are  also  related  to  man  through  friendly  qualities, 
as  luxuries,  necessaries,  and  in  the  arts,  medicine,  and  econo- 
mies. Witness  cantharides  and  cochineal,  honey,  the  em- 
blem of  luxury  and  plenty,  and  silk,  the  badge  of  wealth,  ex- 
travagance, and,  unhappily,  of  pride  and  folly. 

The  biography  and  morphology  of  insects  is  a  depart- 
ment of  perfect  enchantment  in  nature,  so  entirely  wonder- 
ful that  it  seems  incredible,  and  even  absurd.  In  many,  the 
change  of  entire  organization,  justly  called  metamorphosis, 
is  one  of  the  order  of  perpetual  miracles,  and  is  without 
parallel  in  any  other  department  of  organic  bodies.  A  wise 
prophecy  it  would  appear  to  the  uninitiated,  that  that  loath- 
some, crawling  worm,  formless  and  disgusting,  in  mud  and 
slime  eating  filth  and  corruption,  should  ever  soar  through 

and  two  or  three  feet  high.  This  ant  is  said  by  Heck  to  "make 
slaves  of  the  black  ant,  both  being  true  Formica,  and  both  work- 
ing." 

*  See  Iconographic  Encyclopedia  of  Science,  Literature,  and  Art, 
by  J.  G.  Heck,  translated  by  Baird,  p.  174. 


INVERTEBRATA.  421 

the  ether  an  object  of  absolute  beauty,  a  form  in  which  all 
excesses  of  ornamentation  seem  perfected,  and  whose  dainty 
appetite  can  feed  only  upon  the  nectar  of  flowers.  The 
recitations  of  interesting  and  strange  things  in  this  depart- 
ment would  be  endless.  Reflect  1  Science  has  recognized 
more  than  one  hundred  thousand  insects ;  patient  natural- 
ists have  watched  and  worked,  and  the  microscope  has  lifted 
the  veil  of  mystery  from  their  private  lives,  organization, 
and  habits,  and  entomology  stands  one  of  the  most  exten- 
sive and  curious  dominions  of  knowledge  possessed  by  man. 
Of  the  classification  or  manner  in  which  this  knowledge  is 
arranged,  a  number  of  systems  have  been  adopted  by  dif- 
ferent entomologists.  The  general  observations  of  Heck  on 
the  anatomical  elements  of  the  Articulata  embrace,  of  course, 
the  structure  of  the  insect.  He  says :  "  The  Articulata  are 
named  from  having  the  various  parts  of  the  body  and  limbs 
articulated  to  each  other.  The  nervous  system  is  composed 
of  ganglions  united  by  a  double  cord,  and  there  is  usually  a 
kind  of  outside  skeleton  composed  of  a  series  of  rings  pro- 
tecting the  interior  parts,  and  serving  as  points  of  attach- 
ment for  muscles.  In  some  classes  respiration  is  affected 
by  means  of  branchia3,  and  in  others  by  tracheae,  or  air 
tubes.  When  limbs  are  present,  they  are  never  fewer  than 
six." 

Cuvier,  after  an  extended  dissertation  on  the  anatomy  and 
physiology  of  insects,  remarks,  on  their  classification  :  "All 
general  systems  or  methods,  relative  to  insects,  are  reduced 
essentially  to  three.  Swammerdam  based  his  on  their  me- 
tamorphoses ;  that  of  Linnaaus  was  founded  on  the  presence 
or  absence  of  wings,  their  number,  consistence,  superposi- 
tion, the  nature  of  their  surface,  and  on  the  deficiency  or 
presence  of  a  sting.  Fabricius  had  recourse  to  the  parts  of 
the  mouth  alone.  In  all  these  arrangements  the  Crustacea 
and  Arachnides  are  placed  among  the  Insects,  and  in  that 
of  Linna3us,  the  one  generally  adopted,  they  are  even  the 
last. "  He  then  proceeds  with  his  own  classification  : — 

36 


422  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

"I  divide  this  class  into  twelve  orders,  the  three  first  of  which 
are  composed  of  Apterous  Insects,  undergoing  no  essential  change 
of  form  or  habits,  merely  subject  to  simple  changes  of  tegument,  or 
to  a  kind  of  a  metamorphosis,  which  increases  the  number  of  legs, 
and  that  of  the  annuli  of  the  body.  The  organ  of  sight  in  these 
animals  is  usually  a  mere  (more  or  less  considerable)  assemblage  of 
ocelli  resembling  granules. 

"Certain  English  naturalists  have  formed  new  orders,  based  upon 
the  wings ;  I  see  no  necessity,  however,  for  admitting  them,  that  of 
the  Strepsipter  excepted, — the  name  of  which  appears  to  me  to  be 
erroneous,*  and  which  I  call  Rhipiptera.f 

"In  the  first  order,  or  the  MYRIAPODA,  there  are  more  than  six 
feet — twenty-four  and  upwards — arranged  along  the  whole  length  pf 
the  body,  on  a  suite  of  annuli,  each  of  which  bears  one  or  two  pairs, 
and  of  which  the  first,  and  in  several,  even  the  second,  seem  to  form 
a  part  of  the  mouth.  They  are  Apterous.  J 

"In  the  second,  or  the  THYSANOURA,  there  are  six  legs,  and  the 
abdomen  is  furnished  on  its  sides  with  movable  parts,  in  the  form  of 
false  feet,  or  terminated  by  appendages  fitted  for  leaping. 

"  In  the  third,  or  the  PARASITA,  we  find  six  legs,  no  wings,  and  no 
other  organs  of  sight  than  ocelli ;  the  mouth,  in  a  great  measure,  is 
internal,  and  consists  of  a  snout  containing  a  retractile  sucker,  or  in 
a  slit  between  two  lips,  with  two  hooked  mandibles. 

"  In  the  fourth,  or  the  SUCTORIA,  there  are  six  legs,  but  no  wings ; 
the  mouth  is  composed  of  a  sucker  inclosed  in  a  cylindrical  sheath, 
formed  of  two  articulated  portions. 

"In  the  fifth,  or  the  COLEOPTERA,  there  are  six  legs  and  four 
wings,  the  two  superior  of  which  have  the  form  of  cases,  and  mandi- 
bles and  maxillae  for  mastication :  the  inferior  wings  are  simply 
folded  crosswise,  and  the  cases,  always  horizontal,  are  crustaceous. 
They  experience  a  complete  metamorphosis. 

"In  the  sixth,  or  the  ORTHOPTERA,  there  are  six  legs,  four  wings, 
the  two  superior  in  the  form  of  cases,  and  mandibles  and  jaws  for 
mastication,  covered  at  the  extremity  by  a  galea;  the  inferior  wings 
are  folded  in  two  directions,  or  simply  in  their  length,  and  the  inner 
margins  of  the  cases,  usually  coriaceous,  are  crossed.  They  only 
experience  a  semi- metamorphosis. 

"In  the  seventh,  or  the  HEMIPTERA,  there  are  six  legs,  four  wings, 
the  two  superior  in  the  form  of  crustaceous  cases,  with  membranous 
extremities,  or  similar  to  the  inferior,  but  larger  and  firmer;  the 

*  Twisted  wings.    The  parts  taken  for  elztra  are  not  so.    See  this  order. 

t  Wings  folded  like  a  fan. 

J  Destitute  of  wings  and  scutellum. 


INVERTEBRATA.  423 

mandibles  and  jaws  are  replaced  by  setae  forming  a  sucker,  inclosed 
in  a  sheath  composed  of  one  articulated,  cylindrical,  or  conical  piece, 
in  the  form  of  a  rostrum. 

"In  the  eighth,  or  the  NEUROPTERA,  there  are  six  legs,  four  mem- 
branous or  naked  wings,  and  mandibles  and  jaws  for  mastication ; 
the  wings  are  finely  reticulated,  and  the  inferior  are  usually  as  large 
as  the  superior,  or  more  extended  in  one  of  their  diameters. 

"In  the  ninth,  or  the  HYMENOPTERA,  there  are  six  feet,  and  four 
membranous  and  naked  wings,  and  mandibles  and  jaws  for  masti- 
cation ;  the  inferior  wings  are  smaller  than  the  others,  and  the  ab- 
domen of  the  female  is  almost  always  terminated  by  a  terebra  or 
sting. 

"In  the  tenth,  or  the  LEPIDOPTERA,  there  are  six  legs,  four  mem- 
branous wings,  covered  with  small,  colored  scales  resembling  dust ; 
a  horny  production  in  the  form  of  an  epaulette,  and  directed  back- 
ward, is  inserted  before  each  upper  wing,  and  the  jaws  are  replaced 
by  two  united  tubular  filaments,  forming  a  kind  of  spirally-convo- 
luted tongue. 

"In  the  eleventh,  or  RHIPIPTERA,  there  are  six  legs,  two  mem- 
branous wings  folded  like  a  fan,  and  two  crustaceous  movable  bodies, 
resembling  little  elytra,  situated  at  the  anterior  extremity  of  the 
thorax;  the  organs  of  manducation  are  simple,  setaceous  jaws,  with 
two  palpi. 

"In  the  twelfth,  or  DIPTEEA,  there  are  six  legs,  two  membranous 
extended  wings,  accompanied,  in  most  of  them,  by  two  movable 
bodies  or  halteres,  placed  behind  them ;  the  organs  of  manducation 
are  a  sucker  composed  of  a  variable  number  of  setae  inclosed  in  an 
inarticulated  sheath,  most  frequently  in  the  form  of  a  proboscis  ter- 
minated by  two  lips." 

The  following  is  the  Linnaean  arrangement,  as  rendered  by 
Jaeger  in  his  Life  of  North  American  Insects  : — 

I.  Coleoptera.     Beetles  or  Chafers. — All  Insects  with  horny  bodies, 

six  legs,  and  four  wings,  of  which  the  upper  ones  are  horny, 
and  the  lower  ones  parchment-like,  as  the  Stag-beetle,  May- 
beetle,  etc. 

II.  Hemiptera.     Bugs. — All   Insects   with   four    parchment  -  like 

wings,  six  legs,  and  who  obtain  their  nourishment  by  suck- 
ing with  a  movable  proboscis,  as  the  Cicadar,  Plant-lice, 
Bed-bugs,  etc. 

III.  Orthoptera.     Straight-winged  Insects.  — Insects  with  four  parch- 

ment-like wings,  of  which  the  upper  ones  overlap  on  the 


424  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

back,  and  the  two  under  ones  are  thin  and  folded  together 
like  a  fan.  They  differ  from  those  of  the  preceding  order 
in  that  they  have  strong  jaws  instead  of  a  movable  pro- 
bocis,  as,  e.g.,  the  Grasshopper,  Cricket,  and  many  others. 

IV.  Lepidoptera.     Butterflies,   Hawk-moths,    and  Moths. — Insects 

with  four  expanded  wings,  covered  with  colored  farinaceous 
scales. 

V.  Neuroptera.     Net-winged  Insects. — Those  which  have  four  trans- 

parent, net-woven,  or  lattice-like  wings,  as  the  Dragon-fly, 
etc. 

VI.  Hymenoptera.      Vein-winged  Insects. — With  four  transparent, 

veined  wings,  and  generally  provided  with  a  venomous 
sting,  as  Bees,  Wasps,  etc. 

VII.  Diptera.     Two-winged  Insects. — As  Flies  and  Mosquitos. 

Following  are  two  other    systems  used  by  entomolo- 
gists :— 

CLASSIFICATION   OF   STEPHENS. 
His  first  general  division  of  insects  is  into  two  sub-classes. 

First  Sub-class. — Mandibulata. 

Order  1.  Strepsiptera.  Order  4.  Dermaptera. 

"     2.  Orthoptera.  "     5.  Trichoptera. 

"     3.  Neuroptera.  "     6.  Hymenoptera. 

Second  Sub-class. — Haustellata. 
Order  1.  Hemiptera.  Order  5.  Homaloptera. 

"     2.  Homoptera.  "     6.  Aphaniptera. 

"     3.  Lepidoptera.  "     7.  Aptera. 

"    4.  Diptera. 

WESTWOOD'S    CLASSIFICATION. 

First  Sub-class. — Dacnostomata. 
(Mouth  with  Jaws.) 

Order  1.  Hymenoptera. 

(?)  Osculant  Order,  Strepsiptera. 
Order  2.  Coleoptera. 

Osculant  Order,  Euplexoptera. 


INVERTEBEATA.  425 

Order  3.  Orthoptera. 

(?)  Strepsiptera.  (?) 
Order  4.  Neuroptera. 

(?) 
Order  5.  Trichoptera.     (Phryganea  alone.) 

Second  Sub-class. — Anthostomala. 

(Mouth  with  a  Sucker.) 
Order  1.  Diptera. 

Osculant  Order,  Homaloptera. 
Osculant  Order,  Aphaniptera. 

Order  2.  Heteroptera,  (including  the  water-bugs.) 
"     3.  Homoptera. 
"    4.  Lepidoptera. 

For  reasons  already  stated,  the  catalogue  of  insects  of 
the  mountain,  with  some  notices  of  their  habits,  cannot  be 
admitted  here. 

36* 


426  THE    MOUNTAIN. 


FOURTH  GREAT  DIVISION  OF  THE  ANIMAL 
KINGDOM;  OR,  RADIATED  ANIMALS. 


THIS  division  embraces  animals  of  simple  or  uncomplicated 
organization,  not  the  less  wonderful  on  that  account,  rather  the 
more  so,  as  executing  complex  functions  with  the  most  rudi- 
mentary instrumentalities ;  and  is  the  region  of  trouble,  sur- 
prise, and  doubt,  where  the  plant  and  animal  contest  their  re- 
spective fields,  and  the  naturalist  has  attempted  a  compromise 
by  calling  the  forms  Zoophytes,  which  means  animal-plants. 
It  includes  a  vast  range  of  structures  and  "variety  of  degrees," 
all  of  which,  however,  agree  on  one  point,  namely,  "  their 
parts  are  arranged  around  an  axis,  and  on  one  or  several 
radii,  or  on  one  or  several  lines  extending  from  one  pole  to 
the  other,"  and,  with  a  few  exceptions,  affecting  the  radiat- 
ing form,  however  shadowy  or  far  off.  It  is  a  world  of  crea- 
tures that  seem  doomed  on  the  question  of  cunningly-devised 
mechanisms  eliminating  thought  through  material  organs 
alone, — for  the  "nervous  system  is  never  very  evident," 
there  is  never  any  true  circulating  system,"  and  "in  the 
great  number  of  Zoophytes  there  are  no  vessels  whatever." 
Some  Zoophytes  have  regular  stomachs  and  the  rudiments 
of  an  intestinal  canal ;  others  have  a  mere  intestinal  sack 
without  any  opening,  and  in  others  there  is  a  "  mere  exca- 
vation in  their  substance  without  any  opening,"  and  there 
are  those  which  "  can  only  be  nourished  by  porous  absorp- 
tion. "  Sex  is  sometimes  distinguishable ;  and  they  are  said 
to  be  oviparous,  while  others  are  "  reproduced  by  divisions 
or  buds." 

The  Radiata  are  divided  into  five  classes,  namely:  Echino- 


INVERTEBRATA.  427 

dermata,  Entozoa,  Acalepha,  (or  sea-nettle,)  Polypi,  includ- 
ing the  sponges  and  Infusoria,  or  the  "microscopic  inhabitants 
of  stagnant  waters."  Among  this  group  are  the  single-cell 
animals,  to  which  allusion  has  been  made  as  the  simplest 
form  of  animal.  The  mountain  has  many  representatives 
of  this  great  division  of  the  animal  kingdom,  from  the  order 
Nematoidea,  of  more  complicated  structure,  to  the  simple 
Infusorial  orders,  Rotifera  and  Homogenea. 


CLIMATE; 


OK, 

METEOROLOGY  OF  THE  MOUNTAIN, 


"Add  to  this  a  fickle  and  variable  sky,  an  atmosphere  alternately 
very  moist  and  very  dry,  very  misty  and  very  clear,  Tery  hot  and 
very  cold,  and  a  temperature  so  changeable,  that  in  the  same  day 
you  frill  have  spring,  summer,  autumn,  and  irinter,  Norwegian  frost 
and  an  African  sun.  Figure  to  yourself  these,  and  you  will  have  a 
concise  physical  sketch  of  the  [climatology  of  the]  United  States." 

VOLJET/S  "View,"  1800. 


"The  influence  of  climate  on  animal  life  constitutes  the  end  for 
which  a  physician  studies  the  meteorology  of  the  country  in  which 
he  labors.  To  understand  this  influence,  it  is  not  sufficient  to  con- 
sult his  thermometer,  hygrometer,  and  other  instruments  of  science, 
but  he  must  also  look  at  the  species  and  habitudes  of  animals  which 
live  on  its  surface,  or  in  its  seas,  lakes,  rivers,  and  atmosphere.  In 
doing  this  he  will  find  that  climate,  in  addition  to  its  direct,  has  an 
indirect  effect  on  the  distribution  of  animal  forms ;  through  its  in- 
fluence on  the  growth  and  dissemination  of  plants,  which  constitutes 
the  food  of  the  greater  number  of  animals,  especially  those  which 
are  the  prey  of  the  carnivorous." 

DAJTL.  DBAKE,  M.D. 

430 


"The  whole  of  organic  nature  if  found  to  be  in  dependence  upon 
meteorological  phenomena.    The  influence  of  climate  if  very  power- 
ver  the  exiftence  and  development  of  vegetable*  and  animate ," 

M.  CK, 


"The  air  alfo  changcf  the  electricitlef  while  it  roamf  over  the 
earth,    Tbif  wandering  motion  if  a  contact  of  different  polarized 
tract*  of  the  earth*    Every  mountain,  valley,  and  river,  every  mea- 
dow if  differently  polarized;  from  each  the  air  derive*  another  elec- 
ffa  >i,if  ceaatleff  alternation  of  polar  exchange,  itf 
••'roraef  fo  elevated,  that  at  lart  the  electricity  makef  itf 
appearance  in  a  manner  cognizable  by  the  feofef*    The  production 

ty  by  frictum  admitf  of  a  «imiUr  explanation 
i«,  in  miniature,  what  the  fweep  of  air  if  over  the  earth.    Were  the 
•«  level,  and  composed  of  homogeneouf  matter,  the  air 
t*eome  electrical  by  motion/' 


"  To  be  bathed  in  the  light  and  heat  of  a  new  sun,  and  washed 
with  the  winds  of  a  fresh  sky,  to  feel  the  steam  of  an  unwonted  sur- 
face of  earth  and  the  tension  of  a  different  magnestism  and  electri- 
city to  that  to  which  we  are  accustomed,  are  important  elements  in 
the  recovery  of  health,  particularly  where  moral  circumstances  also 
are  favorable.  The  hygienic  map  of  countries  gathered,  as  it  might 
be,  from  the  physical  character  of  the  inhabitants,  or  from  suscepti- 
ble temperaments  on  the  spot,  would  be  a  guide  worth  having  in  the 
directions  of  patients  to  localities  of  specific  benefit.  In  this  respect, 
we  require  something  more  precise  than  the  guide-books  which  have 
been  written  by  the  climatic  physicians." 

WILKINSON. 


"Marvelous  are  the  offices,  and  wonderful  is  the  constitution  of 
the  atmosphere.  Indeed,  I  know  of  no  subject  more  fit  for  profitable 
thought  on  the  part  of  the  truth-loving,  knowledge-seeking  student, 
be  he  seaman  or  landsman,  than  that  afforded  by  the  atmosphere  and 
its  offices.  Of  all  parts  of  the  physical  machinery,  of  all  the  con- 
trivances in  the  mechanism  of  the  universe,  the  atmosphere,  with  its 
offices  and  its  adaptations,  appears  to  me  to  be  the  most  wonderful, 
sublime,  and  beautiful." 

M.  F.  MAURY. 

432 


CHAPTER   VI. 


CLIMATE  OF  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

"  Do  not  all  charms  fly 
At  the  mere  touch  of  cold  philosophy  ? 
There  was  an  awful  rainbow  once  in  heaven : 
We  know  her  woof,  her  texture ;  she  is  given 
In  the  dull  catalogue  of  common  things. 
Philosophy  would  clip  an  angel's  wings, 
Conquer  aH  mysteries  by  rule  and  line, 
Empty  the  haunted  air,  and  gnomed  mine — 
Unweave  a  rainbow,  as  it  erewhile  made 
The  tender-personed  Lamia  melt  into  shade." 

ONCE,  men  talked  of  the  mysteries  of  the  deep,  of  the 
"  dark,  unfathomed  caves  of  ocean,"  and  thought  that  the 
blue  water  was  as  bottomless  as  the  blue  ether ;  while  the 
poet  even  dreamed  of 

' '  Where  the  isles  of  perfume  are, 
Many  a  fathom  down  in  the  sea, 
To  the  south  of  sun-bright  Araby ; 
Where  ocean  spreads 
O'er  coral  rocks  and  amber  beds ;" 

indulging  also  in  visions  of 

"Dark,  green  solitudes, 
Where  shades,  beautiful  and  bright, 
Amid  sweet  sounds  across  the  deep  would  sweep, 
Like  swift  and  lovely  dreams,  that  walk  the  waves  of  sleep." 
37  433 


434  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

Now  it  has  come,  that 

Maury's  head  and  Brooke's  lead 

Have  changed  the  "isle"  and  "amber  bed" 

To  doleful  caverns  of  the  dead ; 

"cemeteries  for  families  of  living  creatures  that  outnumber 
the  sands  of  the  sea-shore  for  multitude,"  and  have  arranged 
it  that  the  "  physical  geography  of  the  sea"  is  almost  as 
familiar  as  the  physical  geography  of  the  land. 

So,  once,  men  spoke  of  the  mysteries  of  the  air- ocean 
above,  and  beheld  with  awe  the  wondrous  meteor  of  the 
storm,  and  the  motions  of  the  winds  were  secrets  of  the 
heavens ;  for  "  the  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou 
hearest  the  sound  thereof,  but  canst  not  tell  whence  it  cometh 
and  whither  it  goeth;"*  and  "the  wind  goeth  toward  the 
south,  and  turneth  about  unto  the  north ;  it  whirleth  about 
continually,  and  the  wind  returneth  again  according  to  his 
circuits."  A  special  Providence  was  supposed  to  hold  the 
wings  of  the  whirlwind  in  his  fingers,  and  man  bowed  to  an 
inexorable  death  as  to  the  wrath  of  an  avenging  Deity.  It 
was  a  natural  instinct  of  the  barbarous  man  to  personify  the 
winds,  and  endow  them  with  attributes  profoundly  allied, 
either  in  friendly  attachment  to  him,  or  with  anarchic  and 
destructive  force,  against  him.  The  air-currents  of  the 
spring  hours  were  supposed  to  inspire  hope,  and  carry  with 
them  the  promises  of  the  coming  world  of  life ;  having  to 

*  What  follows  is  not  meant  as  an  impiety,  or  a  fling  even  at  John, 
because  he  was  not  a  meteorologist,  for  undoubtedly  he  has  expressed 
and  fixed,  in  the  above  beautiful  words,  the  limitation  of  his  knowl- 
edge in  that  department  of  physics,  but  merely  an  intimation  that 
the  science  of  meteorology  was  not  cultivated  much  in  those  days. 
Neither  is  ignorance  by  any  means  imputed  to  the  more  ancient  and 
venerable  author  of  Ecclesiastes,  for  in  the  next  verse  to  the  one 
above  quoted,  (viz.,  verse  7  of  chap.  i.  Eccles.,)  we  have  recorded 
what  is  now  a  familiar  stereotyped  formula  of  science.  Thus,  "All 
the  rivers  run  into  the  sea ;  yet  the  sea  is  not  full ;  unto  the  place 
from  whence  the  rivers  come,  thither  they  return  again."  The  face  of  na- 
ture is  veiled  until  science  lifts  that  veil,  and  beholds  her  eye  to  eye. 


CLIMATE.  435 

sow  the  earth  with  flowers.  The  summer  wind  was  said  to 
be  genial,  kind,  and  maternal,  nursing  and  perfecting  a 
growing  and  expanding  world.  The  autumnal  wind  was 
thought  beneficent  and  good,  when  it  showered  down  the 
ripened  fruits  of  the  globe  in  plenty  upon  all  creatures,  as 
from  the  hand  of  a  loving  parent.  Pierce  and  stern  the 
winter  winds  rushed  from  their  homes  in  the  cloud-chasms, 
hurrying  the  life-forms  to  silent  sleep,  and  giving  the  earnest 
of  a  temporary  death  to  nature,  again  to  be  relieved  by  the 
promises  of  resurrection  and  life  by  the  returning  airs  of 
spring.  The  fabulous  cave  of  ^Eolus  was  not  a  mere  crea- 
tion of  the  poet,  but  a  significant  symbol  in  the  minds  of  men 
that  there  were  laws  for  the  winds,  and  that  intelligent  and 
intelligible  forces  determined  the  phenomena  of  the  air. 

This  was  all  beautiful  and  well  before  the  arrival  on  the 
planet  of  the  systematic  meteorologist,  and  before  the  scis- 
sors of  philosophy  had  commenced  "  clipping  the  wings  of 
angels,"  and  it  had  come  to  pass  that  the  poet's  talk  about 
the  "  waste  airs  pathless  blue"  was  more  poetical  than  true, 
and  the  secrets  of  the  "viewless  winds"  were  fixed  "among 
the  dull  catalogue  of  common  things." 

Ruthless  science,  with  her  army  of  explorers,  has  navi- 
gated, as  it  were,  and  sounded,  this  air-ocean  of  fifty  miles 
depth ;  has  penetrated  its  mysterious  phenomena ;  has 
wrestled  with  and  exhausted  its  secrets.  She  now  under- 
stands and  has  fixed  its  currents  and  motions  ;  has  arranged 
its  cataracts,  and  defined  its  eddies  and  roaring  maelstroms; 
its  death-trails  of  the  tornados ;  its  circling  arena  of  the 
trade-winds  ;  its  fiery  tracks  of  the  monsoon,  harmattan,  and 
sirocco  ;  its  chimneys  of  aspiration,  and  vortices  of  gyratory 
respiration  ;  its  dances  of  electricity  and  magnetism,  and  its 
boilings  and  surgings  of  caloric. 

The  beautifully-systematized  and  harmoniously-arranged 
machinery  of  the  atmospheric  sea  has  been  made  the  sub- 
ject of  scientific  analysis,  and  its  laws  announced  and  been 
demonstrated  to  the  understanding  of  man,  as  plainly  as  the 
school-boy's  rule  of  three. 


436  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

Meteorologists  have  discovered  that  there  are  regular  and 
irregular  winds,  regular  and  irregular  rains,  regular  and 
irregular  storms  and  electrical  phenomena.  Of  this  cate- 
gory of  movements  the  regular  winds,  rains,  and  storms, 
with  accompanying  electrical  manifestations,  are  those  most 
generally  found  in  activity.  In  other  words,  there  is  a  sys- 
tem in  the  action  of  all  these  meteoric  elements,  the  con- 
stant operation  of  which  produces  a  series  of  constant  results. 
These  have  been  made  the  subject  of  scientific  observation 
for  some  time  by  different  meteorologists.  The  great  causal 
forces  at  work,  of  all  atmospheric  movements,  are  differently 
designated  and  explained  by  different  theorists  and  observ- 
ers, but  the  general  results,  the  catalogue  of  visible  outward 
facts,  are  accredited  and  acknowledged  by  all. 

Thus  the  details  and  facts  of  the  trails  of  the  storms  which 
have  integrated  themselves  as  great  individual  meteors,  wor- 
thy of  separate  histories,  and  which  have  been  followed  for 
thousands  of  miles  and  traced  out  as  minutely  as  the  move- 
ments of  armies  of  men,  and  their  operations  as  critically 
analyzed,  are  generally  admitted  by  all ;  and  thus  the  regis- 
tration of  visible  phenomena  is  nearly  identical,  as  given  by 
Kamtz,  Dove,  Espy,  Loomis,  Redfield,  Reid,  Butler,  and 
Blodget.  What  the  primum  mobile  may  be,  whether  caloric 
or  electricity,  whether  those  same  gyratory  aspirations,  or 
heat  respirations,  whether  magnetic  stratifications  and  trans- 
fusions with  positive  attractions  and  negative  repulsions,  the 
disputants  each  arranges  the  facts,  and  marshals  them  under 
the  order  and  drill  of  the  polarity  of  his  theory.  In  the 
mean  time,  the  great  facts  that  are  obvious  to  all  of  the 
movements  of  air-currents,  clouds,  and  electrical  manifesta- 
tions, which  occur  within  the  distance  of  a  few  miles  of  the 
surface  of  the  earth,  have  been  ascertained  and  recorded, 
and  now  stand  the  material  and  rudiments  of  what  will  soon 
be  a  beautiful,  wonderful,  and,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  an  abso- 
lutely positive  science. 

Of  the  movements  of  the  atmosphere  in  the  mountain 
ranges  of  Pennsylvania,  the  general  laws  of  the  climatology 


WINDS   AND    STORMS.  .       437 

of  the  eastern  side  of  the  continent  must  of  course  prevail, 
while  their  special  influences  are  markedly  visible. 

WINDS  AND    STORMS. 

Of  the  class  to  which  the  winds  of  the  mountain  belong, 
we  are  presented  with  the  following  universally  admitted 
general  statement  of  facts  and  laws  of  action  : — 

"  Beyond  the  limits  of  the  trade-winds  in  the  temperate  climates 
of  both  hemispheres  are  the  regions  of  the  southwest  and  northwest 
currents,  called  Prevalent  Winds." — JOHNSTON. 

"The  mean  direction  of  the  prevailing  currents  of  air  or  winds  for 
North  America,  is  south.  86°  west." — KAMTZ. 

"The  counter-trade,  after  leaving  the  northern  limit  of  the  sur- 
face-trades, curves  to  the  eastward,  and  gradually  assumes  an  E.N.E. 
course,  and  becomes  a  W.S.W.  current  where  it  crosses  the  line  of 
no  variation,  and  continues  on  until  it  passes  over  the  Atlantic ;  and 
this  course  and  curve  is  analogous  to  what  may  be  found  true  of  the 
counter-trade  everywhere.  It  is  best  illustrated  by  the  course  of  all 
the  :4orms  (in  the  American  sense  of  the  word,  as  distinguished  from 
thunder  showers  and  other  brief  rains)  which  have  been  traced  north 
or  south  of  the  limits  of  the  trades.  It  was  found  by  Mr.  Redfield 
in  most  of  the  storms  investigated  by  him,  which  originated  within 
or  north  of  the  tropics.  Doubtless  it  was  the  actual  course  of  the 
others,  and  that  the  investigation  was  imperfect.  All  the  great 
autumnal,  winter,  or  spring  storms  which  have  traversed  the  whole 
or  any  considerable  portion  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States, 
east  of  New  Mexico,  which  have  been  investigated  by  Professors 
Espy,  Loomis,  Redfield,  or  others,  have  been  found  to  follow  this 
course. 

"  Messrs.  Espy  and  Redfield,  recognizing  the  existence  of  a  'pre- 
vailing' S.W.  current,  but  considering  the  surface-winds  beneath  it 
as  the  principal  actors  in  producing  the  atmospherical  conditions  and 
changes,  have  attributed  no  office  to  that  current,  except  that  of  giv- 
ing direction  and  progression  to  our  storms.  This  is  their  great 
mistake.  It  plays  no  such  unimportant  part  in  the  philosophy  of 
the  weather,  as  we  have  already  incidentally  seen,  and  will  proceed 
still  further  to  consider. 

" All  our  storms  originate  in  it.     This  we  may  know  from  analogy. 

"  Where  there  is  no  counter-trade,  outside  of  the  equatorial  belt  of  rains, 
and  within  influential  distance  of  the  earth,  there  are  neither  storms  nor 
rains." — BUTLER. 

31* 


438  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

These  prevalent  winds  blow  with  constantly  varying 
strength  and  velocity,  the  register  of  the  normal  and  abnor- 
mal month  range  is  very  extensive,  and  in  certain  seasons  they 
are  quite  tempestuous  in  their  transit  of  the  Alleghany  range. 
This  occurs  even  when  there  is  no  storm  in  existence,  and 
comes  from  the  mountain  heights  stretching  up  through  the 
surface- winds,  and  catching  the  regular  streams  of  the  S.W. 
winds  unbroken  by  the  local  interference  of  the  surface. 
This  journeying  of  the  higher  strata  of  air,  or  streams  and 
currents  of  regular  winds,  is  clearly  declared  by  the  roar  of 
the  forests  on  the  higher  mountain  peaks  and  ridges.  This 
sound  for  hours,  sometimes  days,  precedes  the  large  regular 
storms,  and  is  heard  for  miles,  like  the  regular  boom  of  the 
ocean  in  a  tempest.  This  far-resounding  boil  or  roar  of 
the  mountain-tops  is  one  of  the  grandest  phenomena  of  the 
atmosphere  in  the  mountainous  regions.  It  is  well  known 
even  to  common  observers  :  "a  storm  is  coming,  the  mountain 
roars,"  being  a  fixed  fact  of  general  apprehension.  The 
greatly  predominating,  or  regular  winds  of  the  mountain 
summits,  belong  to  the  western  segments  of  the  horizon, 
while  those  from  the  eastern  side  of  the  circle  are  only  found 
to  prevail  in  great  atmospheric  perturbations,  such  as  ac- 
company the  larger  storms,  and  are  vastly  the  exception. 

During  regular  storms,  and  even  when  no  storm  prevails, 
the  higher  cirrus-stratus  clouds  are  often  seen  careering 
aloft,  borne  swiftly  on  by  these  air-streams,  while  below,  the 
surface-winds  are  shifting  about  to  almost  every  point  of 
the  compass,  and  frequently  are  found  traveling  rapidly 
in  a  direction  opposite  to  that  of  higher  currents.  These 
higher  currents  are  the  channels  through  which  are  borne 
the  constant  supply  of  waters  which  form  what  are  called 
the  zones  of  regular  extra-tropical  rains,  or  that  belt  which 
is  perpetually  liable  to  precipitation,  consequently  this  re- 
gion is  the  best  watered  part  of  the  earth.  This  is  clearly 
shown  by  the  splendid  system  of  rivers  or  conduits  for  the 
meteoric  waters  back  to  the  ocean  whence  they  came ;  for 
as  "  all  the  rivers  run  into  the  sea,  yet  the  sea  is  not  full, 


WINDS  AND   STORMS.  439 

so  unto  the  place  from  whence  the  rivers  come,  thither  they 
return  again." 

"Tliis  constitutes  one  vast,  -wonderful,  connected,  and  regular 
system,  coextensive  with  the  globe,  necessary  to  the  return  of  mois- 
ture from  the  oceans  upon  the  most  inconsiderable  portion  of  it,  and 
to  the  condensation  of  the  local  moisture  of  evaporation ;  and  by  it 
the  waters  are  returned  from  the  oceans,  as  regularly  and  bountifully 
upon  the  far  interior  of  the  great  continents  in  the  same  latitudes 
as  upon  the  'isles  which  rest  in  their  bosoms.' 

"From  what  ocean  and  by  what  machinery  do  our  rivers  return? 
Not  wholly  or  mainly  from  the  North  Atlantic,  although  it  lies  ad- 
jacent to  us,  and  they  often  seem  to  do  so ;  for,  first,  all  storms, 
showers,  and  clouds,  which  furnish,  independently,  any  appreciable 
quantity  of  rain  to  the  United  States,  and  even  adjacent  to  the  At- 
lantic itself,  come  from  a  westerly  point  and  pass  to  the  eastward. 
This  is  a  general,  uniform,  and  invariable  law,  although  there  is  in 
different  places,  and  in  the  same  place  at  different  times,  some  varia- 
tion in  their  direction;  ranging  in  storms  from  W.  by  S.  to  S.S.  W., 
and  in  showers  between  S.  W.  and  N.  W.  to  the  opposite  easterly  points  of 
the  compass;  the  most  general  direction,  east  of  the  Alleghanies  being 
from  W.S.  W.  to  E.N.E."— BUTLER. 

The  rush  of  N.N.E.  winds  to  meet  the  S.W.  storms,  car- 
ried on  by  the  higher  currents  to  the  N.E.,  are  said  by 
some  meteorologists  to  be  most  observable  on  the  S.E.  side 
of  the  Alleghanies,  on  the  Atlantic  plane.  There  are  also 
S.E.  and  southern  winds,  which  flow  under  the  larger  storms, 
if  the  axes  of  the  storms  are  some  distance  north  of  the 
place  of  observation,  or  if  the  axes  are  south  of  the  ob- 
server these  winds  will  be  even  N.N.W.,  flowing  into  the 
same.  On  the  Alleghany  range  these  winds  have  as  much 
violence  as  on  the  S.E.  side  of  the  mountain  barrier,  and 
are  accompanied  by  nearly  the  same  order  of  phenomena. 
These  winds  are  sometimes  of  long  duration,  and  have  great 
force  and  velocity;  striking  the  sides  of  the  mountains,  they 
produce  something  of  the  ocean  sound  or  roar  of  the  higher 
rushing  currents.  They  also  carry  clouds,  sometimes  full, 
dark,  and  heavy,  in  the  strata  of  the  storm-fog  and  storm- 
scud,  in  the  region  within  a  mile  and  a  half  of  the  earth's 


440  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

surface,  and  have  all  the  characteristics  of  the  principal  ac- 
tors of  the  storm  performance. 

It  is  easily  perceived  that  the  Huttonian,  or  caloric  school, 
can,  in  these  phenomena,  get  a  visible  and  almost  tangible 
confirmation  of  their  views.  These  rushing  streams  of  air, 
carrying  fogs  or  scuds,  or  low  clouds,  in  volumes  toward  the 
centre  of  the  annulus,  or  the  mid-axis  of  the  storm  that  is 
coming  from  the  southwest,  present  all  the  appearance  of 
regular  water-carriers  to  the  advancing  chimney  or  vortex 
of  suction  or  uprushing. 

It  would  seem,  from  the  statements  of  observers,  that 
approaching  the  warmer  Atlantic  Ocean  coast  this  scud- 
mass  is  greater,  and  loses  much  of  its  water,  as  sug- 
gested by  Butler  and  Blodget,  before  it  arrives  at  the  Alle- 
ghanies;  the  lofty  cirrus  and  stratus  clouds  still  floating 
onward,  as  can  easily  be  observed  in  the  line  of  the  regular 
counter-trade,  and  dropping  or  pouring  out  their  water,  as 
may  be,  through  these  terrestrial  fogs  and  vapors 

There  is  nothing  especially  peculiar  in  the  phenomena  of 
the  transit  of  the  great  storms  over  the  Alleghany  range. 
The  largest  storms,  or  those  having  axes  of  several  hundred 
of  miles  in  extent,  with  corresponding  annuli,  are  perhaps 
more  violent,  and  exhibit  the  whirling,  twisting,  and  com- 
bating of  the  irregular  under-currents  in  a  more  exagger- 
ated manner  than  the  eastern  or  western  planes  ever  witness. 
The  winds  from  the  eastern  segment,  on  the  approach  of  the 
vast  vortices  of  the  continental  storms,  are  extremely  violent, 
and  their  arrival  and  persistent  blowing  is  the  sure  precursor 
of  a  great  meteor  striding  over  the  continent  from  the  west- 
ern segment.  In  the  winter,  these  eastern  winds,  sometimes 
heavily  charged  with  moisture,  clothe  the  forests  on  the 
highest  knobs  or  summits  of  the  mountain  with  a  mantle  of 
ice  or  hoar-frost,  while  a  few  hundred  feet  below,  on  the  east 
and  west  sides,  there  is  no  such  appearance.  The  mountain 
reveals  its  highest  expression  of  grandeur  and  sublimity  when 
seized  and  in  full  possession  of  one  of  these  magnificent  storms. 
The  tornados  march  across  the  mountains,  as  elsewhere, 


CALORIC.  441 

mowing  their  swathes  of  death.  The  tracks  of  many  of  them 
are  visible  for  years  in  the  form  of  narrow  avenues  of  fallen 
and  crushed  timber  (called  fallen-timbers)  torn  through  the 
dense  forests.  They  observe  the  same  laws  of  progress  in 
their  passage  of  the  mountains,  and  occur  at  the  same 
periods  of  the  year,  as  at  other  places. 

The  smaller  storms,  or  circumscribed  meteors,  from  a 
single  cloud,  dropping  its  contents,  to  the  regular  thunder 
storms  several  miles  in  circumference,  are  accompanied  by 
winds  from  all  quarters,  more  or  less  violent,  from  moderate 
breezes  to  almost  the  tornado's  force.  In  the  mountains 
these  small  storms  show  their  usual  character,  as  elsewhere, 
perhaps  a  little  more  noisy  from  their  battling  with  the 
forests.  There  is  nothing  peculiar  except  that  the  low  scud 
or  fog-clouds  often  envelop  the  whole  mountain-top  in  a 
silver  mantle,  while  the  region  below  is  clear 


CALORIC. 

It  would  appear,  as  the  result  of  the  concurrent  evidence 
of  meteorologists,  physical  geographers,  and  writers  on 
climate  in  general,  that  the  climate  of  the  continent  of  North 
America  is  peculiar  in  its  caloric  developments,  and  has 
characters  quite  its  own,  being  separated  widely  in  its  lead- 
ing features  from  that  of  the  Old  World.  This  is  soon 
visible  by  comparing  the  American  climate  with  that  of 
Europe  and  Africa.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  range  of  the 
thermometer  is  more  extensive,  that  the  changes  are  quicker 
and  greater,  that  the  heat  in  summer  is  more  excessive,  and 
the  cold  in  winter  more  intense,  in  the  same  parallels  of  lati- 
tude, on  the  shores  of  America  than  in  those  of  Europe.  It 
is  also  stated  that  the  Western  Atlantic  is  much  more 
stormy  than  the  Eastern.  Buffon  placed  the  climate  of 
North  America  in  the  class  of  " excessive  climates" — ex- 
cessively hot  in  summer,  and  excessively  cold  in  winter, — 
thus  exhibiting  a  great  extent  of  the  annual  range  of  tern- 


442 


THE    MOUNTAIN. 


perature.*  In  Clarke,  "  On  the  Sanative  Influence  of  Cli- 
mate," we  have  the  following  table  of  comparison  of  mean 
annual  temperature  of  a  number  of  places  nearly  the  same 
on  the  eastern  and  western  hemispheres,  and  of  the  differ- 
ence of  this  ran  ore  : — 


PLACES. 

Mean 
Annual 
Temp. 

Temp,  of 
Summer. 

Temp,  of 
Winter. 

Dif.  of  Win- 
ter and 
Summer. 

Paris 

51-4° 

66-0° 

38-0° 

28-0° 

Cambridge   America/       ..  .. 

50-4° 

70-5° 

34-0° 

36  0° 

St  Maloes  

54-5° 

60-0° 

42-0° 

24-0° 

Cincinnati  

53-7° 

72-9° 

32-9° 

40  0° 

Nantes         . 

55-6° 

70-7° 

42-2° 

28-4° 

New  York  

53-8° 

79-2° 

29  8° 

40-0° 

Bourdeaux 

56-5° 

70-7° 

49-l° 

28-G° 

Philadelphia  

54-9° 

73.90 

32  2° 

41-70 

A  number  of  causes  have  been  assigned  for  this,  and  a 
number  of  explanations  and  suggestions  made  of  the  ra- 
tionale of  the  universally  acceded  facts  in  this  department. 

In  the  Physical  Atlas  of  Johnston,  we  have  this  sug- 
gestion : — 

"The  permanent  and  drifting  ice  of  the  arctic  regions  essentially 
contributes  to  depress  the  isothermal  lines  on  the  east  coast  of  North 
America  to  such  low  latitudes,  and  to  increase  the  difference  of  the 
seasons ;  for,  while  on  the  European  side  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  be- 
tween the  isothermal  lines  of  40°  and  32°,  the  difference  between 
winter  and  summer  amounts  to  36°  and  40°,  on  the  other  side,  on 
the  coasts  of  the  New  World,  it  amounts  to  52°  and  54°.  There  is 
here  14°  and  16°  difference  on  the  different  sides  of  the  Atlantic 
under  some  lines  of  latitude." 

Dr.  Drake  remarks  : — 

"On  the  western  side  of  the  continent  the  high  range  of  the 
Sierra  Nevada  cuts  off  the  genial  influence  of  the  Pacific  Ocean." 

Thus,  he  supposes  the  equalizing  influence  of  large  bodies 
of  water  is  prevented  from  reaching  the  eastern  side  of  the 

*  See  one  of  the  leading  quotations  from  Volney  ;  a  rather  sharp 
observation  for  sixty  years  ago. 


CALORIC.  443 

continent,  as  borne  by  the  prevalent  winds,  by  the  wall  of 
mountains. 

Lorin  Blodget  describes  the  climate  approaching  the  west- 
ern side,  and  far  interior  of  the  continent,  as  "  singularly 
mild  and  warm,"  compared  with  the  range  of  the  eastern 
coast.  "  On  the  Tipper  Missouri  an  extensive  region  was 
as  mild  in  climate  as  St.  Pauls  in  Minnesota."  Wheat  grows 
on  Mackenzie's  River  nearly  to  the  sixty-fifth  parallel. 

"The  comparison  of  climates  for  the  United  States  shows  a  rapid 
increase  of  heat  in  going  westward,  on  any  line  of  latitude  from 
points  in  Minnesota,  and  this  even  when  the  elevation  increases.  It 
is  warmer  at  Fort  Benton  on  the  Missouri,  in  longitude  110^°  west, 
and  latitude  472°  during  every  season,  than  at  St.  Pauls,  Minnesota. 
The  isothermal  lines,  even  for  winter,  curve  very  largely  northward 
over  this  space,  indeed  they  curve  most  for  this  season,  making  there 
more  difference  in  the  temperature  than  in  any  other  part  of  the 
year.  At  Sitka,  on  the  Pacific  coast,  in  Kussian  America,  at  57° 
north,  the  winter  temperature  is  33-^°,  which  is  as  warm  as  at  St. 
Louis,  Washington  City,  and  Philadelphia.  Beginning  at  the  coldest 
side  of  the  continent,  we  have  not  yet  ascertained  the  value  of  the 
west  side.  If  the  mountains  were  removed,  the  whole  area  would  cor- 
respond in  climate  to  the  west  of  Europe,  very  nearly  at  least;  at 
the  latitude  of  St.  Petersburg  it  would  be  as  habitable  as  that  part 
of  Russia  is,"  etc.  etc. 

From  all  of  which  statements  of  Mr.  Blodget  it  appears 
that  the  isothermals  on  the  east  side  of  the  continent  make 
a  most  singular  and  rapid  declension  southward. 

On  the  subject  of  the  causes  of  fluctuations  of  tempera- 
ture on  the  eastern  side  of  the  continent,  Mr.  Butler  has  the 
following  suggestions  as  to  the  magnetic  causes  of  the  same 
phenomena  : — 

"To  the  difference  in  the  magnetic  intensity  of  the  eastern  portion 
of  this  continent,  compared  with  Europe  and  our  western  coast, 
very  much  of  the  difference  of  climate,  so  far  as  temperature  is  in- 
volved, may  be  attributed.  We  have  seen  in  what  manner  the 
isothermal  lines  surround  these  areas  of  intensity.  So  the  most 
excessive  climate,  that  is,  the  climate  where  the  greatest  extremes 
alternate,  other  things  being  equal,  is  upon,  or  near,  the  line  of  area 
of  greatest  magnetic  intensity.  I  say  other  things  being  equal,  be- 


444  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

cause  large  bodies  of  water  modify  climates  by  equalizing  the  sea- 
sons,— making  the  summers  cooler  and  the  winters  warmer  than  the 
mean  of  the  parallel. 

"  Thus,  our  great  interior  lakes  modify  the  climate  in  relation  to 
temperature  in  their  vicinity.  Their  summers  are  cooler  and  their 
winters  warmer ;  but  westward  of  them  the  same  line  of  equal  sum- 
mer temperature,  or  isothermal  line,  rises  with  considerable  abrupt- 
ness ;  and  the  winter,  or  isocheimal  line  of  equal  temperature,  falls 
in  a  similar  manner;  thus,  the  range  of  the  thermometer,  from  the 
highest  elevation  to  the  lowest  depression,  for  the  year,  is  very  great, 
while  in  the  tropics  the  range  is  comparatively  small. 

"From  observations  made  at  the  military  posts  of  the  United 
States,  I>r.  Forrey  deduced  summer  and  winter  lines  of  equal  tem- 
perature, starting  from  the  vicinity  of  Boston  and  running  west, 
which  showed  most  remarkably  the  rise  of  the  summer  lines  as  in- 
tensity increased,  and  the  fall  of  the  winter  lines  in  like  manner. 
The  influence  of  the  lakes  was  also  most  obvious.  The  elevation  of 
the  earth  increases,  going  west,  to  about  700  feet  at  the  surface  of 
the  lakes,  and  to  nearly  4000  feet  at  the  eastern  base  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and,  although  temperature  does  not  decrease  to  as  great 
a  degree  when  the  elevation  above  the  level  of  the  sea  is  gradual, 
yet  some  allowance  should  doubtless  be  made  for  that  elevation  on 
this  line.  When  that  allowance  is  made,  the  ascent  of  the  summer 
line  to  the  north,  over  the  area  of  the  greatest  intensity,  is  strikingly 
apparent." 

He  farther  remarks  : — 

"The  effect  of  this  difference  of  magnetic  intensity  upon  the  cli- 
mate of  Europe  is  marked.  There,  the  excessive  summer  heat,  which 
our  greater  magnetic  intensity  and  larger  volume  of  counter-trade 
give  us,  is  unknown.  Hence,  while  we  can  grow  Indian  corn  (which 
requires  the  excessive  summer  heat)  over  all  the  Eastern  States,  up 
to  45°,  and  in  some  localities,  east  of  the  lakes,  to  47°  30',  and  to 
50°  west  of  them,  to  the  base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and,  notwith- 
standing the  increase  of  elevation,  they  cannot  grow  it  except  over  a 
limited  area,  and  with  limited  success."* 

Magnetism  and  Thermalism  it  would  seem,  then,  are 
intimately  associated  in  the  phenomena  of  the  surface  of 
the  earth ;  and,  on  the  point  now  under  consideration,  the 
former  exerts,  according  to  Mr.  Butler,  great  influence  in 

*  In  thermometric  range,  the  western  side  of  the  eastern  continent 
is  the  same  as  the  western  side  of  the  western  continent. 


CALORIC.  445 

depressing  the  temperature  of  the  eastern  side  of  the  con- 
tinent. Whatever  may  be  the  cause,  whether  from  topo- 
graphic agency  in  modifying  atmospheric  movements,  or 
deeper  geological  and  magnetic  forces,  or  the  "permanent 
and  drifting  ice  of  the  arctic  region,"  etc.,  the  great  fact  is 
universally  acceded. 

Speaking  of  the  arctic  fauna,  Agassiz  observes  : — 

"It  has  already  been  said  that  the  arctic  fauna  of  the  three  con- 
tinents is  the  same ;  its  southern  limit,  however,  is  not  a  regular  line. 
It  does  not  correspond  precisely  with  the  polar  circle,  but  rather  to 
the  isothermal  zero;  that  is,  the  line  where  the  average  temperature 
of  the  year  is  at  32°  Fahrenheit.  The  course  of  this  line  presents 
numerous  undulations.  In  general,  it  may  be  said  to  coincide  with 
the  northern  limits  of  trees,  so  that  it  terminates  where  forest  vege- 
tation succeeds  the  vast  arid  plains;  the  barrens  of  North  America 
are  the  tundras  of  the  Samoyides.  The  uniformity  of  these  planes  in- 
volves a  corresponding  uniformity  of  plants  and  animals.  On  the  North 
American  continent  it  extends  much  farther  southward  on  the  east- 
ern shore  than  on  the  western.  From  the  peninsula  of  Alaska,  it 
bends  northward  toward  the  Mackenzie,  then  descends  again  to- 
ward the  Bear  Lake,  and  comes  down  nearly  to  the  northern  shore 
of  Newfoundland." 

On  this  subject  Butler  makes  also  the  following  state- 
ment : — 

"  Take  the  isothermal  line  of  0  or  zero,  that  is,  the  line  where  the 
mean  or  average  height  of  the  thermometer  for  the  year  is  at  zero. 
At  Behring's  Straits  this  line  is  a  little  below  the  arctic  circle,  or  the 
parallel  of  66°  30X  north  latitude.  Passing  east  over  North  America, 
it  descends  into  Canada,  almost  to  Lake  Superior,  and  to  about  the 
fiftieth  parallel;  that  is  to  say,  it  is  on  an  average  during  the  year 
as  cold  as  our  continent  at  the  fiftieth  parallel  as  it  is  at  Behring's 
Straits  at  the  sixty-fifth  parallel.  Passing  east,  the  line  of  zero  rises 
again  over  the  Atlantic  Ocean  until,  in  the  meridian  of  Spitsbergen, 
it  reaches,  within  the  arctic  circle,  up  almost  to  the  seventy-fifth 
parallel.  So,  too,  the  isothermal  of  5°  below  zero,  which  is  below 
the  sixtieth  parallel  in  Siberia,  rises  in  the  North  Sea,  above  Beh- 
ring's Straits,  to  the  parallel  of  75°,  descending  on  the  continent  in 
North  America  to  the  fifty-fifth  parallel,  and  rising  again  almost  to 
the  pole  at  Spitzbergen,  to  descend  again  in  Siberia,  while  the  iso- 
thermals  of  10°  and  15°  below  zero,  which  in  North  America  are  but 

38 


446  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

just  above  the  latitude  of  60°  and  75°  respectively,  ascend  abruptly 
surrounding  the  magnetic  pole,  and  falling  short  of  the  geographical 
one." 

Of  the  isothermal  curves  in  the  interior  valley,  Dr.  Drake 
indites  : — 

"The  curves  of  equal  mean  temperature,  which  traverse  the  In- 
terior Valley,  cannot  yet  be  delineated,  for  the  want  of  a  sufficient 
number  of  observations.  In  the  west,  from  the  cooling  influence  of 
the  Cordilleras  of  Mexico,  and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  extending  into 
the  polar  circle,  and  to  the  east  from  a  similar  though  smaller  influ- 
ence of  the  same  kind  exerted  by  the  Appalachian  chain,  from  the  lati- 
tude of  33°  to  48°  or  50°  north  we  know  that  the  curves  of  equal 
mean  temperature  cannot  lie  parallel  to  the  lines  of  latitude,  except 
for  a  certain  distance  in  the  middle  of  the  valley.  East  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, as  they  approach  the  Appalachian  Mountains,  they  must 
bend  to  the  south ;  west  of  that  river,  as  they  ascend  the  great  in- 
clined plane,  they  must  come  in  the  same  direction,  and,  on  reaching 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  must  of  necessity  extend  along  their  slopes, 
rising  gradually  as  the  latitude  lessens,  but  not  attaining  the  sum- 
mits of  these  mountains  until  we  come  within  the  tropics.  It  results 
from  these  data  that  the  isothermal  lines  of  the  valley  are  nearly 
parallel  to  those  of  one  side  of  a  compressed  ellipsis  or  long  oval  with 
their  eastern  curved  extremities  much  shorter  than  their  western. 
Where  they  intersect  the  trough  of  the  Mississippi  they  have  their 
highest  latitude." 

It  has  been  clearly  demonstrated  that  the  climate  of  the 
State  of  Pennsylvania,  in  its  thermometric  oscillations,  is 
the  most  equable  of  the  whole  Atlantic  range.  This  comes 
from  its  mediate  latitudinal  position,  also  its  being  saddled 
over  the  two  planes  of  the  Atlantic  and  Ohio  water-sheds, 
and  over  the  Appalachian  range,  its  territory  extending  from 
the  lakes  to  the  arms  of  the  ocean ;  one  cause  of  its  dis- 
tinctive climate  thus  being  the  well-known  equalizing  influ- 
ences of  large  bodies  of  water.  A  region  of  agreeable 
equilibrium  of  climate,  that  happily-located  State  enjoys  a 
most  desirable  temperature  ;  removed  from  the  chilling  north- 
ern and  northeastern  Atlantic  and  lake  sweep  of  currents, 
also  from  the  hotter  southwestern  and  southeastern  streams 
of  air,  it  exhibits  less  of  the  excessiveness  of  climate  de- 


CALORIC.  447 

scribed  by  meteorologists  than  any  other  of  the  United 
States.  Its  mean  temperature  is  47°,  or  nearly  the  same  as 
that  of  Great  Britain,  whose  mean  latitude  is  about  54°, 
ivhile  that  of  Pennsylvania  is  not  41°. 

Mr.  Blodget  gives  the  mean  average  temperature  of  the 
spring  months  of  the  whole  State  as  41°,  or  its  mean  annual 
temperature.*  The  mean  temperature  of  summer  is  thus 
stated  by  observers  :  from  tide  to  mountain  range,  12-2-°  ; 
mountain  belt,  67°  ;  western  end  of  State,  TO0,  or  2J  of  dif- 
ference between  the  east  and  west  plains.  The  climate  of 
the  mountains,  then,  it  seems,  gives  an  average  summer 
temperature  of  67°.  On  the  heights  of  the  Alleghanies  it 
is  much  less.  The  autumnal  mean  of  the  State  is  50°,  the 
Atlantic  side  54°,  and  the  western  slope  52°.  The  winter 
mean  of  the  mountain  group  is  24°,  the  western  slope  28°, 
and  the  eastern  30°.  The  maximum  summer  tempera- 
ture of  the  whole  State  is  74°,  the  summer  minimum 
65°.  The  low  mean  summer  temperature  of  67°  gives  a 
delightful  climate  to  the  mountain  district  of  the  State,  and 
constitutes  it  one  of  the  most  attractive  regions  on  the  con- 
tinent. That  belt  of  mountains,  as  will  be  seen  from  the 
above  data,  has  a  calorical  range,  from  mean  winter  to  mean 
summer  temperatures,  of  42°. 

The  climatal  vibrations  of  the  State  exhibit  of  course  the 
general  extremes  of  temperature  which  characterize  the 
eastern  side  of  the  continent.  This  statement  applies  to 
annual,  monthly,  and  diurnal  changes,  also  to  those  depend- 
ent upon  accidental  atmospheric  vicissitudes,  which  often 
amount  in  a  short  time  to  enormous  thermometric  ranges. 
The  regular  diurnal  changes  are,  perhaps,  the  most  con- 
siderable in  the  mountain  regions,  the  surfaces  of  the  moun- 
tains being  more  covered  with  forests,  thus  preventing  uni- 
form and  extensive  heating  of  the  surface  by  the  direct  rays 
of  the  sun.  This  range  of  protected  surfaces  has  over  it 
a  stratum  of  cold  air,  which,  as  soon  as  the  sun  declines 

*  "Pittsburg  has  a  summer  mean  of  71-4°,  and  Marietta,  Ohio, 
71-3°,  while  Philadelphia  is  72-5°  to  73-7°."— BLODGET. 


448  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

beneath  the  horizon,  pours  out  into  cleared  spaces,  ravines, 
and  valleys,  rivers  of  cold  air.  This  strikes  all  travelers 
through  the  mountains,  especially  among  the  higher  ranges, 
and  is  the  cause  of  the  sudden  diurnal  change  of  those  re- 
gions. The  extremes,  monthly  and  annual,  above  alluded 
to  are,  however,  from  all  authorities,  less  in  Pennsylvania 
than  any  other  State  of  the  Union,  thus  giving  that  State, 
as  already  remarked,  a  more  equable  and  salubrious  climate 
than  is  exhibited  in  any  other  part  of  North  America.  Speak- 
ing of  the  great  general  uniformity  of  the  Eastern  United 
States,  Lorin  Blodget  remarks,  in  his  admirable  work,  the 
"  Climatology  of  the  United  States,"  p.  128  :— 

"The  district  embraced  by  this  uniform  climate  is  very  large. 
Excepting  the  points  of  local  influence  at  the  coasts  and  near  the 
great  lakes,  it  may  be  said  to  include  all  the  continent  east  of  the 
one-hundredth  meridian  ;  at  which  line  the  arid  and  extreme  charac- 
ter of  the  plains  sets  in.  Of  this  district  nearly  the  whole  surface 
may  be  practically  regarded  as  level,  and  very  little  elevated.  The 
mountains  which  occur  do  not  break  in  upon  the  climate  except  by 
reduction  of  temperature  simply,  or  by  changes  caused  by  altitude 
alone.  They  do  not  shelter  or  expose  either  side,  nor  cause  any  con- 
trasts in  the  character  of  productions  respecting  them.  Western  and 
Eastern  Virginia  diifer  little,  and  probably  not  at  all,  from  the  influ- 
ence of  the  intervening  range  of  mountains.  It  is  still  more  de- 
cisively so  in  Pennsylvania,  and  at  the  southern  extremity  of  the 
Alleghany  ranges,  where  Tennessee  may  be  contrasted  with  North 
and  South  Carolina  and  Upper  Georgia.  This  absence  of  interruptions 
of  the  general  condition,  even  where  mountains  of  considerable  height 
occur,  is  one  of  the  most  distinguishing  features  of  the  North  Ameri- 
can climate,  and  that  which,  more  than  any  other,  requires  it  to  be 
treated  as  a  separate  district  for  the  area  east  of  the  plains." 

Still,  as  has  been  observed,  there  is  a  difference  between 
the  climate  of  the  Atlantic  slope  and  the  Appalachian  range 
of  mountains,  and  the  western  or  great  valley  slope,  which 
constitutes  the  basin  of  drainage  of  the  Alleghany  and 
Monongahela  Rivers.  This  gives  three  minor  shades  of 
climate  in  Pennsylvania,  each  with  its  distinctive  charac- 
teristics. 

The  climate  of  the  Alleghany  Mountain  range  through 


CALORIC.  449 

the  State  presents  the  same  general  laws,  as  already  stated, 
and  characteristic  features  of  the  climate  of  the  eastern  side 
of  the  continent.  Through  this  portion  of  their  range  they 
are  embraced  between  the  isothermal  lines  of  50  and  45. 
At  this  point  the  lines  correspond  with  the  lines  of  latitude 
of  39°  40'  and  42°. 

By  following  these  isothermal  lines  around  the  globe, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  we  will  discover,  that  after 
leaving  the  Alleghany  summits  and  making  the  transit 
of  the  Atlantic  plain,  and  leaving  the  continent  to  cross 
the  ocean,  there  is  a  great  deflexion  north  approaching 
the  eastern  shore  or  continent  of  Europe.  It  has  been 
suggested  that  the  lines  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean  are  carried 
north  by  the  vast  river  of  hot  water,  whose  liberated  caloric 
modifies  to  so  great  an  extent  the  rivers  of  air  of  the  ocean 
above.  This  flowing  sea  is  the  Gulf  Stream  rushing  north 
through  the  bed  of  the  Atlantic  from  the  boiling  heats  of 
the  tropics.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  lines  of  latitude  which 
correspond  with  these  isothermals  are,  on  the  west  of  Europe, 
50°  and  60°  ;  thus  showing  the  difference  of  10°  to  18°  of 
latitude  between  the  two  continents.  As  a  direct  conclusion 
from  this,  it  is  evident  that  this  range  of  mountains  through 
the  State  of  Pennsylvania  has  an  extremely  low  mean  an- 
nual temperature,  lower  than  any  other  corresponding  lati- 
tudinal point,  with  a  few  exceptions,  on  the  surface  of  the 
globe  ;  in  other  words,  is  cooler  than  any  other  correspond- 
ing point  on  the  earth. 

The  range  of  the  thermometer  must  not  necessarily,  from 
this  fact,  exhibit  the  exaggerated  extremes  or  excesses  of 
the  special  climates  of  the  continent.  There  may  be,  in 
uncultivated  wilderness  extents,  some  difference  in  the 
thermometric  changes  from  the  same  parallels  of  the  lower 
surfaces  of  cultivated  districts,  or  spots  of  particular  local 
influences.  Observation  will  prove  this,  no  doubt,  and 
establish  the  places.  The  elevation  of  the  mountain,  and  its 
parallel  collateral  ridges  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  gives 
also  a  greater  range  of  caloric  depression.  As  there  is 

38* 


450  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

a  fall  of  one  degree  for  every  three  hundred  feet  (Espy) 
of  ascent  into  the  air,  and,  under  certain  circumstances,  very 
much  less  than  that,  as,  according  to  Drake,*  it  is  two 
hundred  feet  in  steep  ascents,  and  four  hundred  on  gentle 
acclivity  as  on  the  Rocky  Mountain  plains,  this  cause 
alone  would  give  diminished  temperature  on  the  same  line 
of  latitude,  as  many  of  the  peaks  of  the  range  are  from 
three  thousand  to  six  thousand  feet  above  the  ocean.  These 
high  knobs  or  ranges  of  elevations,  extending  as  we  have 
seen  into  the  higher  currents  of  air,  and  catching  the 
counter-trade  as  it  pours  down  from  the  heights  from  which 
it  is  deflected  from  over  the  tropics,  must  of  necessity  be 
subject  to  vicissitudes  from  sudden  changes,  also  extremes  of 
depression  from  local  causes.  These  are  the  causes  of  the 
great  coolness  of  the  mountain  and  its  winds,  also  the  short- 
ness of  its  seasons,  there  being  sometimes,  in  latitude  40°, 
at  an  elevation  of  2000  feet,  frost  in  all  months  of  the 
year. 

At  Cresson,  on  the  Alleghany  Mountain,  latitude  40° 
30'  I"  north,  longitude  west  1°  30'  6",  and  2000  feet  above 
the  sea,  there  was  frost  in  every  month  of  the  year  1859. 
This  is  rather  a  rare  occurrence  on  the  central  Pennsylvania 
range.  An  absence  of  frost  for  two  or  three  months  is  the 
most  general  character  of  summer. f  Thus  the  Indian  corn, 
whose  range  is  to  the  sixty-fifth  degree  of  mean  temperature 
for  the  three  months  of  summer,  approaches  its  limit  of  cul- 
tivation here,  only  one  or  two  varieties  being  at  all  sure 
crops,  as  already  noticed. 

RAIN. 

Among  hydrometeors,  rain  forms  the  most  important  cli- 
matic element,  hence  an  inquiry  into  the  different  quantities 

*  "  So  peculiar  is  the  vertical  distribution  of  heat,  that  an  eleva- 
tion of  4000  feet,  in  some  parts  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  plateau,  does 
not  reduce  the  temperature  even  one  degree." — BLODGET. 

f  The  mean  duration  of  winter  at  New  York,  according  to  Dekay, 
"is  five  months,  while  in  the  interior  northern  counties  there  is  frost 
nearly  every  month." 


RAIN.  451 

precipitated  in  different  parts  of  the  globe,  and  its  distribu- 
tions among  the  different  seasons,  has  an  important  bearing 
on  many  departments  of  physical  science.  The  life  of  plants 
and  animals  depends  as  much  on  moisture  as  on  tempera- 
ture, and  their  development  is  greatly  modified  by  the  dry- 
ness  or  humidity  of  the  atmosphere.  Rain  is  very  unequally 
distributed  over  the  different  regions  of  the  globe.  It  is 
generally  most  abundant  in  those  latitudes  where  evapora- 
tion takes  place  most  rapidly;  yet  there  are  exceptions  to 
this  rule.  In  many  parts  of  the  earth  it  almost  never  rains, 
because,  as  Kamtz  remarks,  the  greatly  heated  atmosphere 
does  not  contain  sufficient  moisture  to  admit  of  precipitation 
even  during  the  greatest  decrement  of  temperature.  The 
temperate  zone  of  the  New  World  gives  an  annual  amount 
of  thirty-seven  inches  in  the  United  States,  according  to 
Johnston,  and  forty  inches  according  to  Butler  and  Blodget. 
Rain  is  most  abundant  at  the  equator,  and  decreases  to- 
ward the  poles,  in  some  lines  of  observation,  from  150  to 
13  inches.  The  amount  of  rain  decreases,  ascending  from 
low  plains  to  elevated  table-lands ;  on  the  contrary,  increases 
from  plains  and  slopes  of  mountains,  if  those  are  steep  and 
rugged,  as  shown  by  the  annual  fall  at  Paris  being  twenty 
inches,  while  at  great  St.  Bernard  it  is  36*13  inches.  Steep 
and  rugged  mountains  promote,  through  partial  currents  of 
air,  the  formation  and  increase  of  clouds,  such  mountains 
being  more  cloudy  than  those  with  uniform  summits  and 
smooth  slopes.  The  quantity  of  rain  decreases,  receding 
from  coasts  to  the  interior  of  continents,  from  the  greater 
amount  of  evaporation  on  sea  than  land,  and  because  of 
greater  interchange  of  heat  between  land  and  sea,  conse- 
quently greater  movement  of  arial  currents  than  between 
different  parts  of  a  continent.  This  rule  is  apparent  in  the 
interior  of  the  United  States  of  North  America,  in  the  cen- 
tre of  the  plains  of  Orinoco,  in  the  Steppes  of  Siberia,  and 
in  the  interior  of  Australia.  There  are  exceptions  to  this 
rule  from  the  geographic  position  of  countries  in  relation  to 
regions  of  winds,  and  the  direction  of  mountain  chains, 


452  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

which  produce  moisture  in  one  country  and  drought  in  an- 
other in  its  vicinity,  the  former,  when  the  country  is  on  the 
side  of  the  mountain  against  which  the  rain- winds  blow,  and 
the  latter,  when  the  country  is  on  the  opposite  side  of  those 
mountains. 

In  Johnston's  Hyetographic,  or  Rain  Map  of  the  World,* 
we  are  presented  with  a  division  into  the  three  important 
zones  of  precipitation.  The  first  is  the  zone  of  the  peri- 
odical rains,  extending  both  sides  of  the  equator  to  the 
tropics  of  Cancer  and  Capricorn.  This  includes  the  sub- 
ordinate zone  of  "  frequent,  almost  constant,  precipitation, 
always  accompanied  by  electrical  explosions."  This  is  a 
narrow  belt  of  from  5°  or  6°  width,  near  the  equator. 
The  greatest  precipitation  occurs  in  this  belt,  amounting, 
according  to  Johnston,  at  one  point  on  the  western  coast 
of  Africa,  to  "upwards  of  300  inches,  or  twenty-five  feet, 
which  frequently  falls  during  one  season  alone." 

The  other  two  are  the  northern  and  southern  zones  of 
constant  precipitation. 

"The  zones  of  constant  precipitation  are  so  named  in  order  to  dis- 
tinguish them  from  those  of  periodical  rains.  In  the  former,  it  does 
or  may  rain  during  every  day  in  the  year,  whereas,  in  the  latter, 
during  many  months,  not  a  drop  of  rain  falls." — JOHNSTON. 

These  northern  and  southern  zones  of  constant  precipi- 
tation extend  to  the  arctic  and  antarctic  circles.  There  are 
rainless  districts  in  all  these  zones ;  stretching  around  the 
earth  in  different  latitudes,  they  are  generally,  however, 
within  or  near  the  tropics.  Within  these  zones  of  precipi- 
tation there  are,  as  suggested  in  the  quotations  from  John- 
ston's Physical  Atlas,  various  causes  for  irregular  distribu- 
tion of  the  quantities  of  rain  in  different  parts  of  the  earth's 
surface. 

On  this  subject,  Schouw,  of  the  University  of  Copen- 
hagen, has  the  following  remarks  : — 

"Another  principal  cause  of  the  increased  quantity  of  rain,  lies 
in  the  inequalities  of  the  earth's  surface.  Mountains  increase  the 

*  Johnston's  Map  is  VERT  far  from  correct  for  the  American  continent. 


RAIN.  453 

amount  of  rain;  it  increases  in  proportion  as  we  approach  toward 
them,  and  the  higher  and  steeper  they  are.  The  reason  is  obvious 
here  also:  the  strata  of  air  over  the  mountains  are  colder  than  those 
over  plains,  and  a  constant  reaction  takes  place  between  these  differ- 
ent strata.  Sometimes  the  warm  air  of  the  plains  rises  up  the  sides 
of  the  mountains,  or  through  the  valleys,  sometimes  the  masses  of 
cold  air  flow  down  from  the  mountains  into  the  plains  ;  these  strata, 
possessing  different  temperatures,  meet  above  and  below ;  cooling  is 
thus  caused,  and  the  vapors  are  precipitated  as  rain.  When  we  in- 
quire into  the  amounts  of  rain  upon  the  great  plain  which  is  bounded 
on  the  north  by  the  xVlps,  and  toward  the  south  by  the  Apennines, 
we  find  that  they  increase  toward  the  Alps.  Southward  of  the  Po, 
the  annual  quantity  of  rain  amounts,  on  an  average,  to  twenty-six 
inches;  northward  of  the  river,  to  thirty-eight  inches  ;  immediately 
at  the  foot  of  the  Alps  to  sixty  inches.  There  are  particular  places 
in  the  southern  part  of  the  plain  where  the  quantity  of  rain  amounts 
only  to  twenty-one  inches,  and  isolated  points  in  the  Alps  where  it 
amounts  to  one  hundred  inches.  We  meet  with  similar  conditions 
when  we  follow  the  Rhine  or  the  Rhone  upward,  or  when  we  compare 
the  quantities  of  rain  in  the  mountains  of  Germany  and  France  with 
those  presented  by  the  plains." 

Again,  he  observes,  that  the 

"  Influence  of  mountain  chains,  in  the  increase  of  rain,  is  greater 
than  that  of  the  ocean ;  where,  however,  a  range  sinks  down  pre- 
cipitously toward  the  sea,  the  increase  of  the  rain  is  especially  strik- 
ing. This  is  seen  on  the  east  and  west  side  of  Scandinavia,  on  the 
mountains  on  the  west  side  of  England,  and  of  the  south  side  of  the 
Northern  Apennines,  which  extend  down  to  the  Mediterranean,  where 
there  is  sometimes  a  hundred  inches  of  rain.  The  relation  of  the 
various  winds  to  rain  is  just  as  simply  and  readily  explained.  In 
North  America  the  east  wind  is  the  principal  source  of  rain ;  it  comes 
from  the  Atlantic  Ocean." 

From  which  last  opinion,  and  some  others,  many  Ameri- 
can meteorologists  entirely  dissent. 

On  the  subject  of  the  amount  of  rain  which  falls  on  the 
summits  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  there  have  been  but 
few  observations  made  by  actual  measurement  of  the  aggre- 
gate of  precipitation.*  The  observations  made  would  point 

*  It  is  with  extreme  regret  that  the  statement  must  be  made,  that  the  Observatory 
of  the  Alleghany  Mountain  Health  Institute  has  not  yet  been  completed  and  furnished 


454  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

to  a  confirmation  of  Blodget's  views,  given  in  an  important 
communication  to  the  Scientific  Association,  in  1853,  on  the 
annual  fall  of  rain  in  the  United  States.  The  showing  on 
this  point  now  stands  with  the  following  conclusions :  The 
amount  of  absolute  moisture  or  water  in  the  air  diminishes, 
leaving  the  surface  of  the  Atlantic  at  the  foot  of  that  plain, 
and  ascending  the  Appalachian  steps  or  waves  until  the 
summit  range  of  crests  is  reached,  where  there  is  great 
demonstrable  decrement  of  humidity.  After  passing  that 
range,  and  descending  into  the  Yalley  of  the  Mississippi, 
the  moisture  increases,  until  the  surface  of  the  Mississippi 
River  is  reached,  where  the  greatest  amount  of  moisture  is 
found.  A  diagram  of  the  great  atmospheric  sponge  would 
thus  show  increased  and  intensified  shading  or  regular  in- 
crease of  the  quantity  of  moisture  from  the  summit  of  the 
Alleghany  to  the  surface  of  both  waters.* 

In  Butler's  "  Philosophy  of  the  Weather"f  we  have  the  fol- 
lowing statements,  made  from  facts  furnished  by  Blodget : — 

"  The  northern  portion  of  the  continent  lies  beneath  the  zone  of 
extra-tropical  rains,  and  north  of  the  northern  limit  of  the  northeast 
trades  is  never  uncovered  from  it,  and  has  no  distinct  rainy  or  dry 
season,  although  more  rain  falls  at  certain  periods,  and  in  certain 
localities,  than  at  others.  The  climate  of  that  part  of  Oregon  which 
lies  upon  the  Pacific,  and  the  character  of  its  rains,  resemble  those 
of  Northwestern  Europe,  and  will  be  further  explained  hereafter. 

"  Coming  to  the  portion  of  the  continent  which  we  occupy,  the 
United  States,  we  find  it  diiferent,  still  a  most  favored  region.  Por- 
tions of  it,  Eastern  Texas,  for  instance,  are  upon  the  same  parallels 

with  a  regular  set  of  meteorological  instruments.  It  is  hoped,  however,  that  this 
much-desired  object  will  soon  be  achieved,  when  results  of  the  highest  interest  and 
significance  may  be  expected.  Located  on  the  rim,  or  eastern  margin  of  the  great 
continental  basin,  and  some  2000  feet  above  the  sea,  it  is  inevitable  that  results  highly 
important  to  science  must  be  accomplished. 

*  One  cause  of  the  general  impression  that  more  water  falls  on  the  Alleghany  than 
east  or  west  is,  that  during  the  winter  months  the  mountain  summits  are  generally 
white  with  snow,  while  there  is  no  snow  at  eastern  or  western  base  or  the  sides  of  the 
mountain.  Of  course,  the  height  of  the  mountain,  stretching  up  into  colder  spaces, 
and  preventing  the  melting  of  the  snow,  will  explain  this,  without  any  increase  in 
the  quantity  of  water  falling  in  the  form  of  snow. 

f  This  is  an  interesting  and  suggestive  book,  and  one  of  the  best  contributions  made 
recently  to  the  science  of  meteorology. 


RAIN.  455 

of  latitude  as  the  rainless  regions  of  Northern  Mexico,  etc.  Eastern 
Texas,  however,  is  not  rainless.  Other  portions  are  upon  the  same 
parallels  as  California,  etc.,  yet  have  no  distinct  rainy  and  dry  sea- 
son. We  repeat,  this  section  is  a  most  favored  region,  without  a 
parallel  upon  any  portion  of  the  earth's  surface,  except  in  degree,  in 
China  and  some  other  portions  of  Eastern  Asia. 

"  It  is  not  only  without  a  distinct  rainy  and  dry  season,  but  it  is 
watered  by  an  average,  annually,  of  more  than  forty  inches  of  rain, 
while  Europe,  although  bounded  on  three  sides  by  seas  and  oceans, 
and  apparently  much  more  favorably  situated,  receives  annually  an 
average  of  only  about  twenty-five  inches,  if  we  except  Norway  and 
one  or  two  other  places,  where  the  fall  is  excessive.  The  distribu- 
tion of  this  supply  of  moisture  over  the  United  States  is,  in  other 
respects,  wonderful.  Iowa,  in  the  interior  of  the  continent,  far 
away  from  the  great  oceans,  on  the  east  or  west,  or  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  on  the  south,  receives  fif'y  inches — some  ten  or  fifteen  inches 
more  than  fall  upon  the  slopes  east  of  the  Alleghanies,  and  contigu- 
ous to  the  great  Atlantic,  (from  which  all  our  storms  are,  ERRONEOUSLY, 
supposed  to  be  derived!)  and  the  average  over  the  entire  great  interior 
valley  is  about  forty-five  inches,  falling  at  all  seasons  of  the  year." 

On  the  views  of  the  combating  theorists  as  to  the  particu- 
lar oceanic  origin  of  the  waters  falling  on  these  mountains, 
there  might  be  an  interesting  critique. 

While  Maury  and  Redfield  contend  that  our  southwest 
currents,  with  their  freight  of  moisture,  come  from  the  Pa- 
cific Ocean,  Butler  assumes  that  they  come  from  the  South 
Atlantic,  and  Espy  and  the  school  of  Huttonians  generally 
talk  of  the  warm  streams  of  moisture  from  the  North  and 
East  Atlantic  Ocean,  the  forty-five  annual  inches  of  water 
do  actually  fall  upon  the  United  States,  minus  ten  inches  on 
the  Alleghany  heights,  on  the  authority  of  Mr.  Blodget.  At 
the  same  time  we  have  seen,  from  the  authority  of  other 
meteorologists,  that  mountain  ranges  catch,  condense,  and 
precipitate,  controlling  and  modifying  the  whole  supply  of 
water  to  those  portions  of  the  earth. 

From  Butler  we  have  the  following  statements  : — 

"Everywhere  currents  passing  from  the  ocean,  over  mountain 
ranges,  part  with  a  large  share  of  their  moisture." 


456  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

Again, 

"The  influence  of  mountains  in  extracting  the  water  from  the  at- 
mospheric currents  which  pass  over  them  is  well  known  and  readily 
explainable." 

Blodget,  however,  found  that  whatever  might  be  the 
source  of  our  rains,  when  the  water-carriers  reached  the 
Alleghanies  they  were  so  far  exhausted  of  their  moisture 
that  those  mountains  extracted  less  from  them  than  fell  to 
the  westward,  by  some  five  or  ten  inches  annually ;  and  that 
the  fall  of  rain  upon  them  was  less  than  upon  the  Atlantic 
slope  eastward  of  them  to  the  ocean.  This  last  announce- 
ment does  not  accord  with  observations  elsewhere  made,  but 
is  easily  explained. 

As  the  storm  approaches  the  ocean,  it  attracts  in  under  it 
the  surface  atmosphere  of  the  ocean,  loaded  with  vapor,  con- 
densing in  the  form  of  fog  and  scud  as  it  becomes  subject  to 
the  increasing  influence  of  the  storm.  Although  the  scud 
or  fog  would  not  of  itself  make  rain,  it  aids  materially  in 
increasing  the  quantity  of  that  which  falls  through  it.  "  The 
drops,  by  attraction  and  contact,  enlarge  themselves  as  they 
pass  through,  in  the  same  manner  as  a  drop  of  water  will  do 
in  running  down  a  pane  of  glass  which  is  covered  with  mois- 
ture. The  small  drop  which  starts  from  the  upper  portion 
of  a  fifteen-inch  pane  will  sometimes  more  than  double  its 
size  before  it  reaches  the  bottom."  It  is  by  this  power  of 
attracting  the  surface  atmosphere,  which  contains  the  mois- 
ture of  evaporation  under  it,  and  inducing  condensation  in 
it,  that  the  moisture  of  evaporation,  which  rarely  rises  very 
far  in  the  atmosphere,  is  made  to  fall  again  during  storms 
and  showers. 

This  attraction  of  a  moist  atmosphere  from  the  ocean, 
accounts  for  the  excess  of  rain  on  the  east  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies compared  with  its  fall  upon  them.  So  the  great 
Yalley  of  the  Mississippi  is  comparatively  level,  and  less  of 
its  water  runs  off  than  of  that  which  falls  upon  the  Allegha- 
nies, and  there  is,  therefore,  more  moisture  of  evaporation 
in  the  atmosphere  of  the  former  to  be  thus  precipitated  and 


RAIN.  457 

add  to  the  annual  supply  of  rain  upon  that  valley,  and  it 
therefore  exceeds  that  which  falls  upon  the  Alleghanies. 

Those  mountains,  too,  are  elevated  but  about  1500  feet 
above  the  table-lands  at  their  base,  and  do  not  exert  great 
influence  on  the  counter-trade.  If  they  were  6000  or  8000 
feet  high,  a  different  state  of  things  would  exist. 

Again,  Mr.  Blodget  found  the  quantity  of  rain  which  fell 
in  Iowa,  and  to  the  south  and  west  of  the  lake  region,  to  be 
greater  than  fell  over  the  lake  region  itself. 

This,  he  thinks,  is  doubtless  in  part  owing  to  the  same  cause. 
The  counter-trade,  in  a  stormy  state,  attracts  the  surface  at- 
mosphere from  the  lake  region,  with  its  evaporated  moisture, 
before  it  arrives  over  it,  and,  therefore,  more  rain  falls  south- 
west of  the  lake  region  than  upon  it.  This  power  of  at- 
tracting the  surface-wind  of  the  ocean  in  under  it,  produces 
the  heavy  gales  which  affect  our  coast,  and  which  are  rarely 
felt  west  of  the  Alleghanies  to  any  considerable  degree  ;  and 
a  storm  coming  from  the  W.S.W.,  extending  a  thousand 
miles  or  more  from  S.S.E.  to  N.N.W.,  may  have  the  wind 
set  in  violently  at  southeast  on  the  southern  coast  first,  and 
at  later  periods,  successively  at  points  farther  north,  and 
thus  induce  the  belief  that  the  storm  traveled  from  south  to 
north. 

Of  the  influence  of  the  Alleghanies,  as  atmospheric  modi- 
fiers, Dr.  Drake  records  : — 

"The  mountains  bounding  the  Mississippi  Valley  on  either  side 
deserve  great  consideration.  To  the  east,  or  rather  southeast,  the 
Appalachian's  stretch,  in  many  parallel  or  coalescing  ridges,  from 
Alabama  to  the  region  north  of  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  rising 
from  2000  to  5000  feet  above  the  sea.  They  no  doubt  contribute  to 
some  extent  to  give  direction  to  certain  winds.  When  an  easterly  wind 
prevails,  they  deprive  it  by  condensation  (?)  of  a  portion  of  the  moisture 
with  which  the  warm  Atlantic  Ocean  had  imbued  it,  and  reduced  its 
temperature,  and  hence,  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio,  and  in  other  cen- 
tral portions  of  the  valley,  a  southeast  wind  never  raises  the  tempera- 
ture as  high  as  a  southwest." 

Aside  from  the  general  laws  of  atmospheric  phenomena 
on  the  Appalachian  Mountains  of  Pennsylvania,  there  are 

39 


458  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

local  and  special  causes  of  meteoric  manifestations.  The 
higher  ridges,  and  especially  the  great  culminating  range 
called  the  Alleghany  Mountain,  show  this  in  an  eminent  de- 
gree. Their  height  alone  above  the  level  of  the  sea  would 
give  a  modified  meteorology.  Another  cause  of  special 
character  in  the  surface  or  local  influences,  is  the  condition 
of  that  surface,  its  soil,  rocks,  etc.  We  have  already  seen, 
in  the  chapter  on  the  soil  of  the  mountain,  that  it  is  com- 
posed principally  of  sand  and  clay,  the  sand  predominating, 
and  without  much  superficial  detritus. 

From  the  rocky  heights,  terraced  slopes,  and  precipitous 
ravines,  the  meteoric  waters  flow  off  quickly  by  surface  con- 
duits and  subterranean  drainage  through  the  fissured  strata. 
Thus,  there  is  no  intense  or  protracted  soaking  of  the  soils, 
as  occurs  in  regions  of  extensive  diluvial  deposits,  or  flats 
without  natural  drainage,  and  in  the  composition  of  which 
the  clay  element  is  the  predominating  ingredient.  There 
are  few*  ponds  of  water,  but  the  very  few  lakes  or  tarns 
that  do  exist  near  the  mountain  proper,  are  of  a  highly  in- 
teresting character.  They  are  small,  limpid  bodies  of  water, 
inclosed  within  folds  of  the  ridges  and  hills,  gleaming  jewels 
upon  the  bosom  of  the  landscape.  Of  this  character  are 
Lewis  and  Hunter's  Lakes,  in  Lycoming  County.  They 
have  been,  till  within  a  few  years,  surrounded  by  native 
forests,  and  are  pools  of  perfectly  pure  water,  and  of  exceed- 
ing beauty. 

As  would  be  expected,  there  are  but  few  bogs,  morasses,  or 
swales  of  any  extent,  and  very  rarely  pools  of  stagnant  water. 
Thus,  from  evaporating  surfaces  of  bodies  of  water,  there  is 

*  In  the  northeastern  and  northwestern  corners  of  Pennsylvania  there 
are  many  interesting  lakes  and  ponds,  forming  striking  features  in  the 
landscapes  of  those  parts  of  the  State,  so  long  celebrated  for  the  beauty 
of  their  scenery.  Southwest  of  the  waters  of  the  West  Branch  of  the 
Susquehanna  there  are  no  lakes  on  the  Alleghany  range,  or  either 
side  of  it,  for  long  spaces  extending  through  the  Southern  States. 
There  is  a  geological  solution  of  this  fact  which  is  an  interesting 
scientific  deduction. 


RAIN.  459 

but  little  supply  of  moisture  to  the  atmosphere.  Dense,  na- 
tive forests,  and  extensive  wastes  of  shrub  and  bush-growth, 
cover  the  greater  part  of  the  surfaces  of  the  higher  ranges 
of  knobs  and  slopes.  This,  of  course,  prevents  the  sun's 
rays  and  winds  from  acting  on  the  water  of  the  soil,  and 
therefore  quick  surface  evaporation,  to  the  extent  which  oc- 
curs in  cleared  and  cultivated  regions,  cannot  here  take 
place.  The  springs  and  streams  of  the  mountain  show 
this  by  their  volume  and  freshness,  the  creeks  and  rivers, 
in  the  cultivated  portion,  drying  up  in  the  summer  months. 
The  constant  prevalence  of  the  regular  air-currents,  always 
of  some  degree  of  intensity,  from  gentle  breezes  to  rush- 
ing streams,  carry  off  to  the  northeast  most  of  the  mois- 
ture which  they  drink  up  from  the  surface  of  the  moun- 
tain. This  occurs  almost  constantly,  except  during  the 
prevalence  of  regular  storms  of  precipitation,  or  local  cloud- 
falls.  The  meeting  streams  from  the  northeast,  running 
as  under-currents  in  a  direction  opposite  to  the  regular 
marching  of  the  storm,  then,  of  course,  drop  their  local 
additions  or  feedings  from  local  evaporation.  In  fact,  the 
air-currents,  from  far  distant  spaces  of  the  air-ocean,  are  the 
regular  water-carriers  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains ;  while 
constantly  prevalent  winds,  or  gentle  air-streams  take  up  the 
moisture  of  the  surfaces,  to  be  precipitated  in  distant  spaces 
of  the  earth  or  ocean  of  water  again.  The  presence  of  any 
undue  humidity  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  mountain  heights 
is  proved,  moreover,  by  recorded  observation,  not  to  exist. 

From  this  whole  condition  of  things  it  follows  that  the 
exact  hygrometric  range  of  the  mountain's  atmosphere  is 
nearly  the  same  as  at  corresponding  latitudinal  points  at  its 
base  below,  with  the  unexpected  difference  only  that  the  air 
is  dryer ;  leaving  to  be  explained  by  the  local  influence 
already  described — of  large  forests  in  a  state  of  nature,  re- 
ceiving and  retaining  in  their  cool  shades  the  water  sup- 
plied by  the  clouds,  uninfluenced  by  the  evaporating  power 
of  the  sun  and  winds  coming  in  contact  with  the  earth's 


460  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

surface — tne  appearance  of  excessive  dampness  beneath  the 
canopy  of  branches  and  leaves. 

There  are  really  upon  the  mountain  no  special  local  phe- 
nomena on  this  point  visible  or  demonstrable  except  those  di- 
rectly dependent  upon  this  "  boundless  contiguity  of  shades." 
To  the  influence  of  this  cause  is  due  the  growth  of  the  vast 
number  of  lichens  and  mosses,  which  are  here  found  investing, 
as  parasites,  the  bodies  of  trees,  logs,  and  rocks,  through 
the  deeper  and  more  protected  parts  of  the  forests,  seem- 
ing to  indicate  an  undue  amount  of  moisture,  while,  as  al- 
ready remarked,  experiments  demonstrate  it  not  to  be  the 
case.  The  dew  and  rain  precipitations,  which,  falling  upon 
a  cleared  and  open  soil  permanently  heated  by  the  direct 
rays  of  the  sun,  are  speedily  driven  off,  remain,  on  the  con- 
trary, in  these  impenetrable  shades,  prevented  from  exhaling 
by  the  mantle  of  trees  and  bushes,  ferns  and  mosses,  and 
pass  off  by  slower  evaporation,  but  principally  underneath, 
giving  origin  to  the  numerous  springs  with  which  the  moun- 
tain abounds. 

As  a  direct  consequence  of  this,  the  formation  of  large 
bodies  of  low  fog  is  unusual,  and  the  dense  masses  of  vapor, 
resting  for  hours  in  the  valleys  aad  lowlands,  is  of  unfre- 
quent  occurrence  in  the  mountain  ranges.  Occasionally  a 
silver  veil  of  snow-white  fog  is  seen  overhanging  the  deeper 
valleys,  ravines,  or  gorges,  but  it  is  as  evanescent  as  a  wan- 
dering cloud,  and  looks  often,  in  the  distance,  like  a  sheet  of 
water  or  mountain  lake  sleeping  in  repose  among  the  hills. 
Like  the  mirage  of  the  desert,  these  white  clouds,  settling  in 
the  depressions  of  the  mountain,  simulate,  to  absolute  perfec- 
tion, bodies  of  water  reflecting  the  light  of  the  sky,  and  the 
pictures  are  so  artistically  elaborated  that  the  captivated  be- 
holder cannot  disenchant  himself  from  the  beautiful  illusion. 
Preceding  and  following  the  storms,  low  fog  often  envelops 
the  spurs  of  the  mountain ;  as  also  the  regular  storm-scud, 
occasionally,  when  the  overhanging  mass,  heavy  and  low, 
sinks  down  to  the  stratum  of  the  storm,  or  high-fog,  em- 
braced within  a  half  mile  of  the  surface. 


INDIAN-SUMMER.  461 

The  connection  of  electricity  with  the  hygrometric  state 
of  the  air  is  a  subject  of  interest,  and  exhibits  sanitary  rela- 
tions of  vital  moment. 

Local  electrical  phenomena  also  occur  on  the  mountain 
ranges.  The  higher  currents,  with  differently  charged  clouds, 
or  masses  of  air  holding  water  in  a  state  of  suspension,  in 
passing  through  the  mountain  heights,  bristling  with  forests, 
which  are  constantly-acting  conductors,  as  might  be  ex- 
pected, give  rise  to  varied  electrical  demonstrations. 

The  volumes  of  air  in  the  forest  spaces  are  constantly 
more  or  less  highly  charged  with  electricity  from  the  friction 
of  the  rolling  masses  above.  This  explains  the  vivid  and 
etherial  nervous  exaltation  always  experienced  upon  enter- 
ing a  mountain  wood,  and  which  is  as  real  and  tangible, 
even  to  an  unimpressible  person,  as  the  earth  on  which  he 
walks. 


INDIAN-SUMMER. 

The  meteor  of  the  Indian-summer  is  of  exceeding  beauty 
and  interest  on  the  mountain.  The  causes  of  this  peculiar 
condition  of  the  atmosphere  have  been  variously  estimated 
and  rendered  by  different  writers  on  the  subject.  The  phe- 
nomenon is  most  striking  on  the  high  range  of  knobs  of  the 
summit.  They  seem  to  repose  in  the  light  of  a  new  heaven, 
and  to  be  arrayed  by  the  genii  for  the  advent  of  some  rare  and 
unexpected  pageantry.  The  air  is  pervaded  by  a  generally 
diffused  haze  of  an  azure  or  smoky  hue,  resting  upon  the 
earth  like  a  translucent  fleece,  imparting  to  the  sunlight,  as 
illuminating  objects,  a  variety  of  tints,  violet  and  gold.  At 
times,  the  setting  sun,  half  veiled  with  ruddy  glow,  descends 
a  globe  of  fire,  while  the  landscape  assumes  the  strange,  dis- 
astrous aspect  of  the  surface  under  the  shadows  of  the 
eclipse.  The  charm  of  the  still,  hushed,  almost  perpetual 
twilight  of  the  Indian-summer  days,  brings  the  world  into 
the  finest  pictures  of  quietness  and  sweetness,  contrast 
and  surprise.  A  dreamy  opium-trance  steals  upon  the 

39* 


462  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

senses;  the  atmosphere  is  no  longer  an  invisible  element 
of  power,  the  terrible  stream  of  a  viewless  river,  or  even 
a  gently  flowing  current  of  azure  air,  but  the  crystalline 
wave  is  now  visible  and  tangible  in  a  new  sense  and  atti- 
tude, and  lies  against  the  hill  a  glowing  cloud  of  purple 
light,  or  bends  over  the  mountain-top  like  a  regal  mantle 
that  you  could  lift,  as  the  "babe  thinks  it  can  play  with 
heaven's  rainbow."  The  enchantment  is  permeating,  dis- 
solving, and  ecstatic ;  that  invisible  and  wonderful  air  is 
visible;  the  great  storm-king,  from  uprooting  forests,  de- 
stroying cities  and  navies,  lies  down  upon  the  mountain 
slope,  like  a  weary  lion,  to  sleep.  Nature,  glad  with  his 
repose,  and  sympathizing  with  the  drowsy  giant,  hushes  all 
her  voices,  and  he  dreams, 

"Als  still  is  his  luke,  and  als  still  is  his  e'e, 
Als  the  stillnesse  that  lay  on  the  emerant  lee, 
Or  the  myst  that  sleips  on  ane  ^aveless  sea." 


CLIMATE — SANITARY   RELATIONS.  463 


SANITARY   RELATIONS. 


"  IT  would  be  no  new  thing  to  insist  on  the  influence  which  climate 
exerts  upon  the  health  ;  but  the  continually  increasing  facilities  for 
traveling,  and  the  locomotive  spirit  of  the  present  age,  invest  the 
subject,  every  day,  with  a  fresh  interest.  Along  with  this,  we  find 
the  enlightened  views  of  modern  medical  practice,  enlarging  the  basis 
of  its  curative  means,  and  putting  its  trust  not  in  the  employment 
of  drugs  only — often,  indeed,  assigning  to  them  but  an  ancillary 
value — but  calling  in  the  aid,  without  regard  to  its  nature,  of  any 
adjuvant  that  reasonably  promises  relief.  And  so  it  has  recognized 
in  the  change  of  air  and  scene,  and  in  those  moral  and  social  influ- 
ences which  go  along  with  them,  to  a  degree  far  beyond  what  our 
more  immediate  ancestors  would  have  been  prepared  to  admit,  a  most 
powerful  agent  in  the  treatment  of  actual  disease,  and  of  those  nu- 
merous lesser  ailments,  the  diffusion  of  which  seems  to  advance  with 
the  advance  of  civilization.  To  this  end  the  admirable  work  of  Sir 
James  Clark,  the  first,  I  believe,  in  which  anything  like  a  system  of 
sound  principles  was  advanced  for  our  guidance  in  the  selection  of 
localities,  has  very  much  contributed."* 

"Physical  causes-lie  at  the  bottom  of  whatever  differences  the  mal- 
adies of  different  portions  of  the  earth  may  present;  and  hence  the 
region  which  a  medical  historian  selects,  should  have  well-defined, 
natural,  and  not  merely  conventional  boundaries."! 

"These  hydrographical  facts  (viz.  of  the  Basin  of  the  Alleghany 
River)  show  that  Chestnut  Ridge  and  Laurel  Hill  are  not  boundary 
mountains  of  our  great  valley,  but  are  really  included  in  it.  Its  true 
limits  are,  in  fact,  the  Alleghany  Ridge  in  Pennsylvania  and  Northern 
Virginia,  while,  in  the  southern  part  of  the  latter  State,  and  in  North 
Carolina,  the  Blue  Ridge  is  its  actual  terminus  or  rim.  The  medical 
etiologist  of  the  Interior  Valley  has,  then,  within  his  own  jurisdic- 
tion, a  broad,  alpine  region,  running  through  eight  degrees  of  lati- 
tude, with  a  mean  elevation  of  fifteen  hundred  feet  above  the  bed 
and  banks  of  the  Mississippi,  to  which  it  is  parallel ;  and  the  time 
will  come  when  a  comparison  of  the  two  belts,  in  the  physiology  and 

Francis,  "  Change  of  Climate."  t  Doike. 


464  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

diseases  of  their  inhabitants,  will  be  regarded  as  a  work  of  deep  in 
terest. 

"Unable  to  visit  any  part  of  the  region  lying  between  the  Alle- 
ghany  River  and  Alleghany  Mountain-crest,  or  to  meet  with  publi- 
cations illustrating  its  medical  topography  or  diseases,  I  must  content 
myself,  at  this  time,  with  indicating  it  to  others,  as  a  field  compara- 
tively unexplored  by  the  physician."* 

In  the  invaluable  work  of  Dr.  Drake,  on  the  "Diseases  of 
the  Interior  Yalley  of  North  America,"  from  which  so  many 
quotations  have  been  made,  we  are  presented  with  the  fol- 
lowing general  views  on  "  Climatic  Etiology  :" — 

"CLIMATE  OCCASIONS  DISEASE. — As  no  fact  in  etiology  is  more 
universally  admitted,  than  the  influence  of  climate  in  the  produc- 
tion of  disease,  it  follows  that  he  who  would  understand  the  origin 
and  modifications  of  the  diseases  of  a  country  must  study  its  meteor- 
ology. The  effects  of  climate  are  both  predisposing  and  exciting. 
Thus,  the  long-continued  action  of  a  particular  kind  or  condition  of 
climate  may  bring  about  such  changes  in  our  physiology  as  to  incline 
us  to  some  particular  form  of  disease ;  while  sudden  changes  often 
act  as  exciting  causes  to  other  diseases,  to  which  we  may  be  inclined, 
from  agencies  not  connected  with  climate.  Again,  the  influences  of 
climate  are  both  direct  and  indirect.  The  former  results  from  the 
immediate  action  of  the  atmosphere  on  our  systems ;  the  latter  from 
its  action  on  the  matters  which  are  accumulated  on  the  surface  of  the 
earth,  which  are  thus  made  to  send  forth  agents  of  an  insalubrious 
character.  Thus,  the  same  state  of  the  earth's  surface  which  in  one 
climate  may  prove  highly  pernicious,  in  another  may  be  altogether 
harmless. 

"  CLIMATE  CURES  DISEASE. — But  climate  must  not  be  studied  with 
a  reference  to  etiology  only  ;  for  it  can  cure  as  well  as  occasion  dis- 
ease. It  modifies  the  effects  of  blood-letting,  medicines,  and  regimen; 
and,  although  it  maintains  some  diseases  against  the  united  powers 
of  the  most  active  and  appropriate  articles  of  the  materia  medica,  it 
cures  others  in  the  absence  of  the  whole.  Considered  as  a  therapeutic 
agent,  it  is,  when  skillfully  ordered,  entitled  to  great  confidence.  Its 
action  is  not  often  speedy,  but  the  certainty  of  its  salutary  effects,  in 
general,  compensates  for  their  slow  development. 

"DEFINITIONS  OF  CLIMATE. — In  physical  geography,  the  word  cli- 
mate expresses  a  zone  of  the  earth,  running  parallel  to  the  equator, 
of  such  width  that  the  longest  day  at  its  northern  limit  is  half  an 

*  Drake,  pp.  275,  276. 


CLIMATE — SANITARY   RELATIONS.  465 

hour  longer  than  that  of  its  southern  limit,  supposing  we  are  in  the 
northern  hemisphere ;  but,  in  etiology  and  therapeutics,  the  term  is 
used  in  a  different  sense,  and  simply  expresses  states  of  the  atmo- 
sphere. These  states  involve,  or  consist  in  varying  quantities  or 
qualities  of  certain  elements  of  the  air  itself — its  caloric,  light,  and 
electricity  ;  its  aqueous  vapor,  fogs,  mists,  and  clouds ;  its  dews,  rain, 
hail,  frost,  and  snow ;  its  weight  and  density ;  its  movements  or 
winds  ;  its  factitious  gases  and  mechanical  impurities  ;  all  of  which 
may  be  very  different  in  different  times  or  places  of  the  same  geo- 
graphical climate,  and  nearly  the  same  in  different  zones. 

"ELEMENTS  OF  CLIMATE  ON  THE  GLOBE. — The  crust  of  the  earth  is 
not  uniform  in  chemical  composition  or  surface  ;  it  abounds  in-  moun- 
tains, plains,  and  valleys,  distributed  in  a  very  irregular  manner ; 
portions  of  it  are  densely  overshadowed,  while  others  are  destitute 
of  forests ;  the  larger  part  is  covered  with  oceans,  lakes,  rivers,  and 
swamps ;  an  elastic  atmosphere  rests  upon  the  whole ;  and  every 
part — solid,  fluid,  or  aeriform — is  permeated  by  electricity.  Were  the 
earth,  with  this  surface  removed  from  the  influence  of  the  sun,  the 
phenomena  of  climate  would  be  annihilated ;  in  that  luminary,  then, 
reside  the  dynamics  on  which  they  depend ;  and  the  rays  of  light 
and  heat  are  the  efficient  agents  by  which  its  quickening  influence  is 
exerted  on  the  earth. 

"THE  ELEMENTS -OF  CLIMATE  NOT  THE  SAME  IN  DIFFERENT  PARTS 
OF  THE  EARTH. — It  results  from  what  has  been  said,  that  the  ele- 
ments of  climate  are  not  precisely  the  same  in  any  two  regions  of 
the  globe ;  and,  therefore,  that  the  climate  of  every  region,  even  in 
the  same  latitude,  must  possess  some  peculiarities  ;  the  causes  of  which 
are  to  be  sought  in  the  physical  geography  and  hydrography  of  the 
region  itself,  and  of  those  by  which  it  is  immediately  surrounded."* 

This  brings  us  to  the  therapeutics  of  climates,  special  and 
general.  . 

On  climatic  therapeutics  we  have  the  following  univer- 
sally-accredited statements  and  opinions  of  one*  fully  recog- 
nized as  uttering  the  voice  of  the  science  of  the  times  : — 

"The  influence  of  climate  over  disease  has  long  been  established 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  and  physicians  have,  from  a  very  early  period, 
considered  change  of  climate  and  change  of  air  as  remedial  agents 
of  great  efficacy.  This  opinion  is  supported  both  by  reason  and  ex- 
perience :  it  is  reasonable,  for  example,  to  believe  that  a  change  of 

*  Drake,  "Diseases  of  the  Interior  Valley." 

f  Sir  James  Clark,  '•  Sanative  Influence  of  Climate." 


466  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

residence  from  a  crowded  city  to  the  open  country,  or  from  a  cold, 
exposed  part  of  the  country  to  a  warmer  and  more  sheltered  situa- 
tion ;  from  a  confined,  humid  valley  to  a  dry,  elevated  district,  or  the 
reverse,  would  produce  very  sensible  effects  upon  the  human  body ; 
and  we  find  by  daily  experience  that  such  is  the  case. 

"  The  marked  improvement  of  the  general  health,  effected  by  the 
transition  from  the  city  to  the  country,  even  for  a  short  period,  is 
matter  of  daily  remark  ;  and  the  suspension,  or  even  cure,  of  various 
diseases  by  a  removal  from  one  part  of  the  country  to  another,  is  an 
occurrence  that  must  have  come  within  the  observation  of  every  one. 
It  may  suffice  to  mention  here,  in  reference  to  this  fact,  intermittent 
fevers, 'asthma,  catarrhal  affections,  hooping-cough,  dyspepsia,  and 
various  nervous  disorders.  These  diseases  are  often  benefited,  and 
not  unfrequently  cured,  by  simple  change  of  situation,  after  having 
long  resisted  medical  treatment ;  or  they  are  found  to  yield,  under 
the  influence  of  such  a  change,  to  remedies  which  previously  made 
little  or  no  impression  upon  them.  If  such  marked  effects  result 
from  a  change  of  so  limited  a  nature  as  has  just  been  noticed,  it 
might  be  expected  that  a  complete  change  of  climate,  together  with 
the  circumstances  necessarily  connected  with  it,  should  produce  still 
more  important  results  in  the  improvement  of  the  general  health,  and 
in  the  alleviation  and  cure  of  disease.  In  this  expectation  we  are 
also  borne  out  by  experience. 

"My  own  experience  has  been  sufficient  to  satisfy  me,  that,  for  the 
prevention  and  cure  of  a  numerous  class  of  chronic  diseases,  we 
possess,  in  change  of  climate,  and  even  in  the  more  limited  measure 
of  change  of  air  in  the  same  climate,  one  of  our  most  efficient  remedial 
agents ;  and  one,  too,  for  which,  in  many  cases,  we  have  no  adequate 
substitute.  Again,  in  dyspepsia,  and  disorders  of  the  digestive  or- 
gans generally,  and  in  the  nervous  affections  and  distressing  mental 
feelings  which  so  often  accompany  these ;  in  asthma,  in  bronchial 
diseases,  in  scrofula,  and  in  rheumatism,  the  beneficial  effects  of  cli- 
mate are  far  more  strongly  evinced  than  in  consumption.  In  cases 
also  of  general  delicacy  of  constitution  and  derangement  of  the  sys- 
tem in  childhood  and  in  youth,  which  cannot  be  strictly  classed  un- 
der any  of  these  diseases  ;  and  in  that  disordered  state  of  the  general 
health  which  so  often  occurs  at  a  certain  period  of  advanced  life, 
climacteric  disease,  in  which  the  powers  of  tlie  constitution,  both 
mental  and  bodily,  fail,  and  the  system  lapses  into  a  state  of  prema- 
ture decay,  change  of  climate  becomes  a  most  invaluable  remedial 
agent." 

This  comes  indorsed  by  the  wisdom  of  ages.  Hippocrates 
and  Galen  are  here,  and  much  that  the  tireless  efforts  of 


CLIMATE — SANITARY  RELATIONS.  467 

men,  for  hundreds  of  years,  have  established  as  to  the  influ- 
ence of  climate  on  disease,  is  here,  simply  and  with  common 
sense,  stated. 

The  profession  has,  from  time  immemorial,  been  satis- 
fied on  this  point,  and  catalogued  a  multitude  of  phenomena 
by  careful  analysis,  grouping  together  a  series  of  influences 
under  the  names  of  sanitary  powers  of  climate,  alterative 
influence  of  change  of  air,  etc.  What  are  they?  They 
must  embrace  the  whole  order  of  existences  that  surround 
and  impress  the  animal  economy,  as  ponderable  or  im- 
ponderable. 

Man  walks  upon  the  earth  like  a  locomotive  plant,  sucking 
his  blood  from  its  surface.  The  rock,  the  soil,  the  vegetable, 
the  river,  the  animal,  build  up  the  temple  of  his  soul ;  for,  is 
he  not  "  a  complex  of  all  that  surrounds  him,  namely,  of  ele- 
ment, mineral,  plant,  and  animal  ?"  The  computation  of  all 
the  influences  which  surround  man  in  this  medium  of  his  ex- 
istence, is  a  large  field  of  labor,  and  necessarily  involves  the 
science  of  every  object  which  he  touches,  or  which  in  any 
way  comes  in  contact  with  the  great  vital  surfaces  through 
which  his  body  is  sustained  in  existence. 

Extensive  and  learned  volumes  have  been  written  on  cli- 
mate as  a  remedial  agent.  In  the  first  dawn  of  the  intellect 
of  the  profession  we  have  seen  that  the  attention  of  its  most 
gifted  mind,  Hippocrates,  was  directed  to  its  investigations, 
and  the  great  problem  of  climate,  as  a  physiological  and 
pathological  modifier,  received  a  splendid  thesis  on  "Airs, 
Waters,  and  Places,"  from  the  hand  of  the  Father  of  Medi- 
cine. Since  those  ancient  days,  the  profession  has  never 
lost  sight  of  this  rich  and  beneficently  fruitful  subject,  nor 
ceased  to  give  assiduous  attention  to  this  department  of 
knowledge,  so  important  to  the  vital  and  all-absorbing  in- 
terest of  health  to  mankind.  Traveling  physicians  have 
constantly  made  their  observations  on  the  influence  of  the 
different  climates,  localities,  springs,  and  health  retreats,  in 
all  places  with  all  peoples.  Surgeons  of  the  armies  and 
navies  of  the  different  nations  have  been  registering,  by  go- 


468  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

vernment  authority,  all  facts  observed  of  value  for  the  pro- 
fession. The  accounts  of  common  travelers  have  been  col- 
lected, and  sifted  severely  for  any  elements  of  the  science  of 
sanitary  climatology  which  they  might  contain  in  their  col- 
lected facts.  Faith  in  the  change  of  air,  as  a  sanative  influ- 
ence, has  become  extra-professional,  and  is  now  the  ground 
of  ordinary  experience,  so  that  it  is  constantly  suggested  to 
the  valetudinarian  by  his  friends,  to  visit  foreign  countries, 
to  take  a  sea  voyage  for  sea  air,  to  go  to  the  mountains  for 
mountain  air,  or  even  to  go  a  few  miles  into  the  country  for 
country  air.  So  general  a  series  of  conclusions  must  have 
its  origin  in  the  natural  constitution  of  things,  and  the  great 
problem  of  change  of  air,  as  a  curative  resource,  stands  with 
the  verdict  of  approval  from  the  human  race.  This  general 
faith  is  valuable,  as  enabling  the  profession  to  apply  its 
science  and  skill  to  vast  ranges  of  diseases  amenable  to  the 
power  of  change  of  locality  and  the  therapeutics  of  special 
habitats.  From  the  gross,  glaring  facts  of  the  wonderful 
power  of  even  a  few  miles,  to  change  and  cure  extensive 
chains  of  morbid  symptoms,  the  conviction  was  forced  upon 
the  mind,  that  the  medicine,  and  poison  of  airs  and  places, 
was  an  important  region  of  knowledge  demanding  rigid 
scrutiny,  patient  investigation,  and  vigilant  observation. 
The  regular  profession,  ever  awake  to  the  highest  interests 
of  humanity,  has  labored  hard  in  this  field,  and  with  results, 
as  ever,  signal  and  honorable,  significant  and  wise.  The 
literature  of  medicine,  in  this  department,  has  expanded 
largely,  and  the  well-educated  physician's  library  now  con- 
tains volumes  and  essays,  learned  and  precise,  on  the  "  Sana- 
tive Influence  of  Climate,7'*  "  Change  of  Climate  Considered 
as  a  Remedy  in  Dyspeptic,  Pulmonary,  and  other  Chronic 
Affections,"!  "  Geography  of  Health  and  Disease, "J  "  Sys- 
tematic Treatise,  Historical,  Etiological,  and  Practical,  on 
the  Principal  Diseases  of  the  Interior  Yalley  of  North 
America,  "§  "General  Sanitary  Relations  of  the  United 

*  Sir  James  Clark,  Bart.,  M.D.  f  D.  J.  T.  Francis,  M.D. 

%  A.  K.  Johnston.  g  Daniel  Drake,  M.D. 


CLIMATE — SANITARY    RELATIONS.  469 

States  Climate,"  etc.,*  "Influence  of  Tropical  Climates  on 
European  Constitutions,  "f  "  Change  of  Air,  or  the  Philoso- 
phy of  Traveling,"!  "  Mountain  Climate  Considered  in  a 
Medical  Point  of  View,"§  "Diseases  of  Heights,"||  "Mor- 
bid Affections  among  the  Alps,"^  "Meteorological  Charac- 
teristics of  Mountain  Climates,"**  "  Dissertations  and  Sug- 
gestions on  Alpestine  Pathology,"ff  with  numerous  treatises 
on  the  climate  of  places,  hygienic  maps  and  charts  of  the 
distribution  of  disease,  and  reports  on  the  specific  powers  of 
localities. 

This  great  question  of  the  Geography  of  Health  and 
Disease  introduces  the  mind  into  a  prolific  arena  of  medi- 
cal dynamics.  "  Man  is  a  cosmopolite."  He  modifies  the 
agency  of  the  elements  upon  himself, — but  those  agencies 
modify  him.  They  have  rendered  him,  in  his  organization, 
different  in  different  regions,  physiologically,  pathologically. 
The  great  physical  formula  of  natural  elements,  called  "cli- 
mate," is,  as  far  as  man  is  concerned,  only  the  generalized 
synthesis  of  the  great  librations  or  internecine  warfare  of 
ponderable  and  imponderable. 

Reflect  on  the  vastness  of  the  problem — the  indigenous 
diseases  of  climates  !  It  embraces  the  physiology  and  pa- 
thology of  geographic  zones  :  as,  the  calorical  boilings  and 
roastings  of  organs  and  tissues,  of  malarial  poisons  of  such 
intensity  that  they  destroy  tigers  and  snakes,  and  produce 
congestive  and  quickly-destructive  diseases  in  man,  meta- 
morphosing healthy  organs  into  pools  of  disorganized 
and  dissolved  blood,  followed  by  infectious  emanations, 
which  characterize  the  tropics ;  also  of  plastic  inflamma- 

*  Lorin  Blodget. 

f  James  Johnson,  M.D.,  and  James  Ronald  Martin,  Esq. 
J  James  Johnson,  M.D. 
g  H.  C.  Lombard,  M.D.,  of  Geneva. 
||  Dr.  Von  Tschudi. 
f  Dr.  Albert,  of  Briancon. 
**  Professor  Plantamour. 

ff  Professor  Bertrand,  of  Grenoble,  Dr.  Meyer,  of  Zurich,  Dr. 
Michaux,  of  Chamounix. 

40 


470  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

tions  of  temperate  zones,  strange  equipoise  in  the  contest 
of  conservating  and  dissolving  powers,  life,  tough,  tena- 
cious life,  in  the  tissue  and  organ  slowly  eaten  and  con- 
sumed by  the  death  of  the  molecule,  the  furor  of  combustion 
being  the  agonizing  surrender  of  the  painfully  worried  and 
exhausted  cell.  Add  to  this  the  morbid  galvanics  of 
frigid  zones,  frosty  rheumatisms,  writhing  neuralgies,  with 
the  deadening  arrestation  of  development  of  electrical  and 
vital  organs,  etc.  etc.,  in  short,  diseases  of  continents,  dis- 
eases of  islands,  diseases  of  heights  or  mountains,  diseases 
of  depths  or  valleys,  diseases  from  heat,  diseases  from  cold, 
from  dryness,  from  moisture,  from  light,  from  darkness,  and 
all  the  powers  and  qualities  of  localities  alone.  This  is  a 
wide  field  for  scientific  zeal  and  benevolence  to  exhaust. 

That  there  are  positive  and  demonstrable  laws  of  habitats 
with  reference  to  this  climatal  and  specific  power,  is  proved 
by  numberless  observations.  An  example  of  special  climatal 
influence  is  seen  and  felt  in  the  effects  of  certain  winds. 
These,  in  different  regions,  have  their  names — sirocco,  solano, 
autun,  monsoon,  mistral,  northeaster,  norther — associated  in 
common  parlance  with  positive  states  and  conditions  of  the 
body,  and  are  well  known  to  produce  most  characteristic 
physiological  and  pathological  effects.  In  this  connection, 
many  localities  of  specific  poisons,  also  sites  of  hygienic  and 
therapeutic  powers,  might  be  mentioned.  As  the  natural 
history  of  the  special  powers  of  climate  has  been  ascertained, 
more  specific  results  have  accrued  in  rendering  the  catalogues 
of  diseases  of  which  they  are  curative  or  to  which  deleteri- 
ous— in  other  words,  of  conditions  of  media,  either  hygienic, 
therapeutic,  or  lethiferous.  Leaving  out  these  specific  ele- 
ments, the  points  fixed  and  established  have  been  geographic, 
or  relationship  to  latitude  ;  topographic,  or  to  the  place  or 
site  as  related  to  oceans  and  continents,  lakes  and  moun- 
tains, as  in  the  question  of  altitude  and  mere  vertical  eleva- 
tion above  the  sea ;  also,  of  relationships  purely  meteoric, 
as  in  the  motions  of  bodies  of  air,  their  electrical  and  hygro- 
metric  states,  with  calorical  conditions,  revealing  the  force 
of  the  imponderables,  as  of  heat,  the  great  life  element,  the 


CLIMATE — SANITARY  RELATIONS.  471 

great  vitalizer,  the  great  creator  and  destroyer  of  organisms ; 
of  light,  the  incomputable,  the  illimitable  power,  "  offspring 
of  heaven,  first-born,"  and  electricity,  his  brother,  rather 
himself  again,  dread,  wonderful  agent, — all  of  which  belong 
to  the  kingdom  of  the  air,  and  are  represented  in  the  cli- 
mates of  places,  and  of  which  record  has  been  made.  The 
relationship  of  purely  mechanical  or  physical  conditions  of 
the  air,  its  rarity  and  density,  and  barometric  vicissitudes ; 
as  also  of  its  medical  constitution,  with  sanative  power  or 
seeds  of  death,  are  more  or  less  pre-established  by  geo- 
graphy, topography,  and  geology.  The  influence  of  surface, 
of  valley,  mountain,  gentle  slope,  or  precipitous  declivity, 
sheltered  or  exposed  situations,  characters  and  composi- 
tion of  soils,  with  vegetable  covering,  as  of  trees,  shrubs, 
grass  of  savanna,  or  naked  sands  of  the  desert,  winds  or 
calms  thereon,  with  annual  and  diurnal  thermometric  and  hy- 
grometric  changes,  also  their  relationships  to  gastronomies, 
aesthetics,  including  morals  and  religions,  have  all  been  cog- 
nized and  united,  more  or  less  accurately,  with  physiological 
states  and  conditions,  and  their  consequent  pathological 
and  psychological  infirmities.  The  connection  of  health  and 
disease  with  all  these  elements,  the  state  and  condition  of 
original  diathesis  of  bodies  subjected  to  them,  of  organs  and 
tissues  submitted  to  them,  of  form  or  type  of  disease,  style 
and  stage  of  development  brought  under  their  influence, 
have,  to  a  certain  extent,  been  established. 

Other  more  recondite  researches-  have  been  made  into  the 
existence  and  nature,  or  specific  qualities  of  a  certain  principle 
in  the  air,  called  ozone,  discovered  by  Schonbein.  It  is  said  to 
be  an  "irritant  principle,"  a  "powerful  oyxdizer,  at  once  de- 
stroying those  poisonous  gases  composed  of  hydrogen  united 
with  sulphur  and  phosphorus,  and  the  presence  of  which  ren- 
ders the  air  irrespirable.  The  various  gaseous  products  of 
the  decomposition  of  animal  and  vegetable  matters  which  are 
being  incessantly  evolved,  especially  in  great  towns,  seem, 
according  to  the  experiments  of  Schonbein,  to  yield  no  less 
completely  to  the  destructive  influence  of  ozone.  Hence  it 


472  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

is  viewed  as  the  great  purifier  of  the  atmosphere."*  This 
principle  in  the  air  has  been  the  subject  of  much  specula- 
tion, but  its  laws  of  action  and  special  sanitary  qualities 
are  still  conjectural,  and  "  although  the  constant  existence 
of  the  principle  in  the  open  air  of  the  country  and  the 
sea  is  ascertained,  the  proportions  in  which  it  exists  in 
different  localities  is  found  to  be  subject  to  great  varia- 
tion, "f 

Dr.  Charles  Srnallwood,  of  St.  Martin,  Isle  Jesus,  Canada 
East,  the  accomplished  professor  of  meteorology  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  McGill  College,  Montreal,  has  been  making  con- 
stant observations  on  ozone  for  twelve  years.  His  contri- 
butions in  this  department  of  science  are  of  a  most  interesting 
character,  and  as  he  is  one  of  the  extremely  few  observers 
on  the  continent,  his  labor  possesses  great  value.  His  publi- 
cations may  be  found  in  the  "  Transactions  of  the  American 
Association,"  for  185*7,  also  in  numbers  of  the  "Canadian 
Naturalist  and  Geologist,"  1859.  In  a  letter  recently  re- 
ceived from  Dr.  Srnallwood,  he  says  : — 

"I  use  the  formula  of  Schonbein;  but  instead  of  paper  I  find 
calico  or  fine  muslin,  soaked  in  the  solution  of  starch  and  iodide  of 
potassium,  better  than  paper,  and  I  am  now  observing  the  constant 
variations  of  the  amount  by  an  instrument  that  is  worked  by  clock- 
work, and  keeps  constantly  moving  the  prepared  test  one  inch  per 
hour.  I  wish  to  ascertain  the  connection  of  ozone  with  the  usual 
barometric  fluctuations,  and  also  with  the  humidity  of  the  atmo- 
sphere. I  have  also  subjected  the  tests  to  different  colored  rays  of 
light,  and  also  to  polarized  light ;  and  I  have  also  investigated  the 
effects  of  vegetation  on  its  amount. 

"The  daily  continued  observations  are  taken  at  ten  P.M.  and  six 
A.M.,  at  the  height  of  five  feet  from  the  surface  of  the  soil ;  besides 
this,  I  have  observed  at  an  altitude  of  eighty  feet  above  the  ground, 
and  in  all  possible  situations  on  the  ground,  between  the  rows  of 
vegetables,  potatoes,  Indian  corn,  etc. 

"I  would  very  concisely  sum  up  thus  : — 

"Ozone  does  exist  in  the  atmosphere;  varies  in  quantity ;  moist 
weather  favors  its  development ;  northeast  and  southeast  winds 
favor  its  development ;  snow  and  rain  also  increase  its  amount ;  and 

*.British  and  Foreign  Medico-Chirurgical  Review,  1852. 
t  Francis,  "  Change  of  Air." 


CLIMATE — SANITARY  RELATIONS.  473 

I  am  led  to  believe  that  the  amount  attains  two  maxima  and  two 
minima,  in  twenty-four  hours  corresponding  to  the  barometric 
oscillations,  and  also  to  the  degrees  of  humidity.  It  has  been  largely 
developed  for  some  years  during  the  potato  rot,  the  weather  being 
moist,  and  with  a  hot  sun,  a  state  peculiarly  fitted  to  show  ozone 
present.  I  do  not  find  it  at  all  connected  in  amount  with  the  electri- 
cal state  of  the  atmosphere;  sea  breezes  seem  to  favor  its  develop- 
ment, such  as  a  northeast  wind.  I  have  noted  its  presence,  with  a 
thermometer,  36°  below  zero,  and  as  high  as  90°  above.  Tempera- 
ture does  not  seem  to  influence  the  amount  so  much  as  the  humidity 
of  the  atmosphere." 

In  the  "  Canadian  Naturalist  and  Geologist"  for  Decem- 
ber, 1859,  he  further  remarks  : — 

"  The  psychrometer  always  indicates  presence  or  absence  of  ozone; 
it  is  never  in  dry  air ;  is  decomposed  by  heat  when  formed  by  means 
of  phosphorus ;  light  has,  in  its  development,  not  much  influence 
upon  ozonized  paper;  polarized  light  has  least  influence;  influenced  by 
luminous,  heating,  and  actinic  rays ;  the  influence  of  colored  media 
are  proportioned,  having  a  grade  of  power  from  orange,  maximum, 
to  green,  minimum ;  east  and  south  winds  ozonic ;  westerly  and 
northerly  not ;  rain  and  snow,  large  amount ;  northeast  land  wind 
not  ozonic;  sea  breezes,  with  moisture,  ozonic;  dry  northeast  wind, 
with  high  barometer,  no  ozone.  Its  effects  on  animals  and  man  will 
require  a  system  of  registration. 

"During  cholera,  amount  diminished,  but  humidity  was  also  di- 
minished; it  is  highly  deleterious  to  lower  class  of  animals,  its  well- 
known  poisonous  properties  being  turned  to  advantage,  when  pro- 
duced by  slow  combustion  of  phosphorus.  As  a  therapeutic  agent,  it 
can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  been  administered.  Oil  of  turpentine, 
exposed  to  light,  has  acquired  a  pungent  taste  like  peppermint,  owing 
to  formation  of  ozone,  and  proved  poisonous  to  small  animals.  It 
has  been  advised  as  a  local  application  in  rheumatism,  and  internally 
in  chronic  discharges  from  mucous  membranes  of  man.  He  (the 
doctor)  is  prosecuting  investigations  of  effects  of  vegetation  on 
amount  of  ozone;  also  effects  from  germination  of  plants.  The  con- 
tinent of  Europe  is  full  of  observers,  but  on  the  continent  of  North 
America  but  little  attention  has  been  given  to  it.  A  constant,  syste- 
matic form  of  observation  is  necessary,  and  it  is  hoped  soon  to  take 
its  proper  place  in  the  annals  of  true  science,  and  become  alike  in- 
teresting to  the  chemist,*  physician,  and  meteorologist." 

*  "  The  chemical  composition  of  ozone  is  defined  to  be  a  compound  of  oxygen,  anal- 
ogous to  the  peroxide  of  hydrogen,  or  that  it  is  oxygen  in  an  allotropic  state,  that  is, 

40* 


474  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

Medical  climatologists  have  given  classifications  of  cli- 
mates from  their  effects  upon  the  human  body  ;  as  "  Tonic" 
or  dry,  bracing  and  exhilarating,  possessing  the  qualities  of 
tonic  medicines;  "Atonic,"  moist,  relaxing,  even  sedative, 
indicated  in  conditions  requiring  those  influences.  There 
are  also  "Irritant  Climates,"  etc.* 

Nosological  tables,  or  catalogues  of  diseases  curable  by 
climates  have  also  been  given,  with  the  connection  of  places 
and  their  airs,  with  organs  and  their  conditions.  These  de- 
tails belong  to  the  special  domain  of  the  physician,  and  are 
much  too  extensive  to  attempt  to  recite  them  here.  They 
will  be  more  fully  discussed  in  the  "  Supplement  to  the  Moun- 
tain," which  will  contain  an  extended  treatise  on  climate  as 
a  remedy  for  disease,  as  also  the  special  claims  of  the  Alle- 
ghany  Mountain  as  a  locality  of  great  power  in  the  cure  of 
a  long  list  of  maladies. 

It  may  not  be  amiss,  in  this  connection,  to  quote  a  few 
conclusions  of  the  illustrious  Drake,  whose  authority  is  un- 
questioned. Following  the  declension  of  the  malarial  plain 
north,  toward  the  geographic  line  of  perpetual  exemption 
from  malarial  diseases,  he  says  : — 

"We  find,  then,  that  in  the  latitude  of  42°  north,  the  topographi- 
cal conditions  which  originate  autumnal  fevers,  are  nearly  overcome 
by  a  mean  altitude  of  1400  feet ;  but  we  have  previously  seen  that, 
in  the  basin  of  the  Kenawha,  among  the  mountains  of  Virginia,  at 
an  elevation  of  1800  feet,  Professor  Rogers  saw  many  cases  of  in- 
termittent fever.  This  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  difference  of  latitude, 
that  locality  being  about  4°  farther  south  than  the  table-land  in  the 
vicinity  of  Chautauque  Lake." 

This  lake  is  in  Chautauque  County,  tfew  York,  the  ex- 
treme southwest  corner  of  the  State,  bounded  on  the  north 
by  Lake  Erie,  and  on  the  south  by  Pennsylvania.  It  is  a 

with  the  capability  of  immediate  and  ready  action  impressed  upon  it.  It  is  a  great 
oxydizer  and  destroyer  of  the  miasma  arising  from  the  decomposition  of  animal  and 
vegetable  substances.  It  is  colorless,  possesses  a  peculiar  odor  resembling  chlorine, 
and,  when  diluted,  cannot  be  distinguished  from  the  electrical  smell.  Its  density  ia 
said  to  be  four  times  that  of  oxygen."— SMALLWOOD. 
*  Francis,  "  Change  of  Air." 


CLIMATE — SANITARY   RELATIONS.  475 

few  miles  from  the  northern  line  of  Pennsylvania.  Of  this 
region  as  an  alpine  summer  residence  for  invalids,  Dr.  Drake 
remarks  : — 

"When  describing  the  sources  of  the  Alleghany  River,  including 
Chautauque  Lake,  we  were  brought,  by  a  southern  route,  upon  the 
water-shed  which  we  have  now  ascended  from  the  north.  It  may  be 
regarded  as  the  great  salient  terrace,  or  projecting  table-land  of  the 
Appalachian  Mountains;  that  portion  which  advances  farthest  to  the 
northwest,  from  the  central  axis  of  the  chain, — that  which  ap- 
proaches nearest  to  the  great  lakes.  Its  tabular  yet  undulating  or 
hilly  surface  results  from  its  resting  on  a  broad  outcrop  of  Devonian 
shale  or  sandstone,  in  which  the  former  greatly  predominates." 

Then  follows  a  description  of  the  region ;  after  which,  he 
thus  proceeds : — 

"Here,  then,  are  all  the  requisites  for  a  comfortable  and  curative 
summer  residence.  I  will  mention  a  few  classes  of  patients  to  whom 
it  would  be  likely  to  prove  beneficial. 

"First.  Those  who  are  inclined  to*  tubercular  consumption,  or  in 
whom  the  disease,  although  fatally  established,  is  not  so  far  advanced 
as  to  confine  them  to  the  house.  To  which  may  be  added,  children 
affected  with  scrofula  in  the  external  lymphatic  ganglia,  the  skin, 
and  the  eyes. 

"Second.  Those  who  have  had  their  livers  and  spleens  deranged 
in  structure  or  function,  or  their  constitutions  otherwise  shattered, 
by  repeated  attacks  of  autumnal  fever,  in  low  and  hot  situations. 

"Third.  Dyspeptics,  from  any  and  all  causes;  hypochondriacs, 
and  those  subject  to  chronic  hysteria,  or  any  other  form  of  morbid 
sensibility." 

Then  follows  a  flash  on  the  fallibility  of  drugs,  and  the 
immense  power  of  "simple  diet,"  "new  scenery,"  "active 
exercise,"  and  the  "  disuse  of  medicine,"  with  kindly  guide- 
book information  as  to  comfortable  localities.  To  this  suc- 
ceeds some  indications  of  the  summer  climate  of  the  re- 
gion :  fires  at  night  acceptable  in  July  and  August ;  Indian 
corn  frost  bitten  in  August ;  peaches  ill  at  ease ;  "  wheat 
and  hay  harvest  in  August."  He  then  adds  : — 

"It  may  be  said  that  the  Virginia  springs  are  more  elevated,  and, 
therefore,  better  fitted  for  summer  sojourn.  But  their  greater  eleva- 
tion of  five  hundred  feet,  would,  in  the  reduction  of  temperature, 


476  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

only  equal  a  degree  of  latitude,  while  this  region  is  four  degrees 
farther  north.  Nor  can  Saratoga  be  compared,  in  its  summer  cli- 
mate, with  this  mountain  platform ;  for,  although  a  degree  farther 
north,  it  lies  twelve  hundred  feet  nearer  the  level  of  the  sea.  The 
celebrated  springs  of  Virginia  and  New  York  are,  moreover,  places  of 
amusement  for  the  healthy,  not  rural  retreats  for  the  infirm  ;  to  some  of 
whom,  it  is  true,  the  mineral  waters  might  prove  beneficial;  but  all  other 
circumstances  would  combine  to  counteract  their  salutary  influence. 
The  enlightened  physician*  who  conscientiously  desires  to  redeem  his 
patient,  for  three  months  of  the  year,  from  the  deleterious  agency  of 
heat  and  malaria,  or  to  countervail  the  debilitating  effects  of  a  pro- 
tracted summer  in  others,  in  whose  lungs  the  fatal  work  of  tubercu- 
lar excavation  is  going  on,  will,  I  trust,  not  regard  the  business-like 
details  which  I  have  been  giving,  with  disfavor;  but  patiently  read  on 
until  he  qualifies  himself  for  overcoming  the  scruples  of  such  vale- 
tudinarians as  may  fear  or  fancy  that,  in  going  to  the  mountain 
terrace  for  the  summer,  they  would  languish  for  want  of  scenes  and 
objects  of  interest.  These  are  quite  as  numerous,  diversified,  and 
striking  as  in  almost  any  other  portion  of  the  Interior  Valley ;  and  I 
will  briefly  enumerate  the  most  important." 

The  benign  and  indefatigable  Drake  then  proceeds  : — 

First.  "This  region  comprehends  the  great  pine  forests  of  the 
Alleghany  Mountain,"  etc.  etc. 

He  continues  to  describe,  with  sentiment  and  cleverness, 
the  resources  of  the  region,  sanitary  and  pleasurable.  This 
poetical  doctor,  f  with  rhubarb  and  lancet  in  his  pocket,  re- 
cites routes  to  famous  shrines,  enchanting  journeys,  excur- 

*  "It  is  not  sufficient  for  the  physician  to  advise  his  patient,  laboring 
under  a  chronic  infirmity,  to  leave  off  medicine  and  depend  on  travel. 
When  he  prescribes  the  former,  he  directs  where  it  can  be  obtained; 
and,  in  like  manner,  when  he  recommends  the  latter,  he  should  be 
able  to  lay  down  the  appropriate  and  practicable  route ;  in  doing 
which,  he  should  draw  his  information  from  the  books  of  the  profes- 
sion, and  convince  his  patient  that  he  is  familiar  with  what  he  re- 
commends, or  but  little  confidence  will  be  reposed  in  his  advice." — 
DRAKE. 

f  Why  should  doctors  not  sometimes  be  poets  ?  In  constant 
scientific  and  sympathetic  contact  with  the  great  realities  and  tra- 
gicalities  of  the  world,  and  the  human  body,  no  man  is  so  real 
and  alive,  if  earnest  and  spiritual,  as  the  true  and  manly  physi- 


CLIMATE — SANITARY   RELATIONS.  477 

sions  innumerable  and  beautiful  to  "falls  of  rivers"  and 
"minor  cascades,"  "pleasant  roads,"  "romantic  paths," 
"hunting  grounds,"  "trout  streams,"  "grouse  roosts;"  in 
short,  all  that  men  want  or  pray  for,  sick  or  well,  including, 
as  climax,  the  great  Falls  of  Niagara.  In  that  beautiful 
region  of  extreme  Western  New  York  and  Northwestern 
Pennsylvania  he  discovers  a  desideratum  long  sought,  a 
great  alpine  sanitary  resort  for  the  sick,  above  the  malarial 
plain,  and  possessed  of  all  desirable  physical  prerequisites 
and  climatal  elements  for  the  transformation  and  rejuven- 
escence of  the  diseased,  exhausted,  and  weary  laden. 

And  here  the  statement  may  be  made,  that  the  whole  range 
of  knobs  of  the  Alleghany  Mountain  in  Central  Pennsyl- 
vania is  several  hundred  feet  above  this  line  of  malaria,  as 
indicated  by  Dr.  Drake,  and  possesses  all  the  advantages 
enumerated  as  belonging  to  the  Chautauque  Lake  region, 
which  he  indeed  affirms  is  but  a  "  salient  terrace,  or  pro- 
jecting table-land  of  the  Appalachian  Mountains."  Being  a 
degree  farther  south,  and  a  thousand  feet  higher,  the  Penn- 
sylvania Alleghany  combines  all  the  physical  elements,  and 
greater  sanitary  advantages,  than  the  plateau  described  by 
Dr.  Drake.  It  also  extends  above  the  line  of  "alpine  cli- 
,  mate,"  as  established  by  Dr.  Lombard,  which,  at  latitude  40° 
north,  is  2000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea. 

Thus  the  illustrious  Drake,  who  had  studied  with  zeal  and 
genius  for  thirty  years  the  whole  climatal  relations  of  the 
great  valley  and  its  elevated  boundary  lines,  or  geographical 
rim,  and  had  hunted  a  healing  (asylum)  retreat  for  its  sick, 

cian.  As  there  is  "poetry  in  man  and  every  object  that  surrounds 
him,"  and  as  the  chief  end  of  the  doctor  is  to  study  man  and  cure 
him  perpetually,  who  of  the  elect  of  heaven  has  a  better  right,  with 
star-woven  toga,  to  walk  the  heights  of  Parnassus?  Dr.  Camillo 
Brunori,  the  "  Physician  a  Poet,"  under  the  divine  afflatus,  indited 
lovely  idyls  on  purgatives,  celestial  rhymes  on  blisters,  and  "one 
hundred  and  seventy-two  sonnets  on  all  Diseases,  Drugs,  and  Parts  of 
the  Body,  Functions,  and  curative  means."  Honor  to  the  doctor- 
poet  !  all  honor  to  Camillo  the  brave ! 


478  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

discovered,  and  appears  an  ardent  advocate  for,  and  enthu- 
siastic indorser  of,  the  Alleghany  Mountain  plateau  as  a 
place  with  "  all  the  requisites  for  a  comfortable  and  cura- 
tive summer  residence,"  and  a  "rural  retreat  for  the  in- 
firm," far  "  from  the  deleterious  agency  of  heat  and  ma- 
laria,"  and  possessing  more  essential  elements  of  a  perfect 
summer  resort  than  any  other  part  of  the  continent  of 
North  America. 

Hence  the  solemn  import  of  the  words,  on  the  streamer 
of  the  flag-staff  of  the  next  book  of  the  "  Mountain,"  JEscu- 
lapius,  namely, — The  significance  of  the  Alleghany  Moun- 
tain as  the  site  of  a  Sanitarium,  or  retreat  for  the  sick, 
arranged  by  Infinite  Wisdom.  And  hence,  also,  arrives  the 
grand  corollary  from  all  the  foregoing  arguments  and  demon- 
strations, the  inevitable  "Doctorial  uses  of  the  Mountain  1" 


END  OF  BOOK  ATLAS. 

This  ends  the  Book  Atlas,  or  Natural  Science  of  the 
Mountain.  Why  dive  so  deep  in  rocks,  or  soar  so  high  in 
air  ?  Only  to  make  good  the  promise  to  try  to  dovetail  some 
knowledge  of  the  mountain,  a  protuberance  of  the  venerable 
spheroid,  into  universal  science.  The  natural  objects  (sci- 
ences) of  a  spot  are  its  furniture  as  a  medium  of  existence 
or  habitat  for  living  creatures.  A  hurried  invoice  has  been 
made  of  some  of  these  effects,  exhibiting  so  much  for  the 
body.  Natural  history  contains  supernatural  history,  for 
"Nature  is  the  spirit  analyzed  and  at  rest,"  and  the  final 
cause  of  any  existence  being  the  object  or  end  for  which 
created,  much  has  also  been  indicated  for  the  soul,  who, 
with  queenly  power,  will  make  out  her  own  case.  But 
who  was  Atlas,  and  what  of  him  ?  The  brawny-backed 
Titan  was,  according  to  Hesiod,  (Theog.,  50T,  etc.)  "a  son 
of  Japetus  and  Clymene,  and  a  brother  of  Menoetius,  Pro- 


END    OF   BOOK   ATLAS.  479 

metheus,  and  Epimetheus ;  according  to  Apollodorus,  his 
mother's  name  was  Asia ;  and,  according  to  Hyginus,  he 
was  a  son  of  Aether  and  Gaea."  Other  accounts  are  given 
of  his  genealogy.  Hesiod  says  "  he  bore  heaven  with  his 
head  and  hands."  From  the  Homeric  poems:  "  Atlas  knows 
the  depth  of  the  sea,  and  bears  the  long  columns  which  keep 
asunder,  or  carry  all  around,  earth  and  heaven ;  or  of  the 
columns  which  keep  asunder  heaven  and  earth,  which  co- 
lumns are  the  mountains."  The  Homeric  description  was  a 
"  superhuman  or  divine  being,  with  a  personal  existence,  and 
blended  with  the  idea  of  a  mountain." 

"  The  idea  of  heaven-bearing  Atlas  is,  according  to  Le- 
tronne,  a  mere  personification  of  a  cosmographic  notion, 
which  arose  from  the  views  entertained  by  the  ancients  respect- 
ing the  nature  of  heaven  and  its  relation  to  earth." — (L.  S.) 
Again,  he  led  the  Titans  in  their  fight  with  Zeus,  and 
"  being  conquered,  he  was  condemned  to  the  labor  of  bear- 
ing heaven  on  his  head  and  hands."  Another  version  is, 
"he  was  a  man  who  was  metamorphosed  into  a  mountain." 
Again,  Perseus,  by  the  "  Medusa's  head,  changed  him  into 
Mount  Atlas,  on  which  rested  heaven  and  all  its  stars." 

This  mythico-cosmical  origin  of  mountains,  embracing 
every  imaginable  formulae,  gives  a  sure  and  steadfast  base- 
line for  the  chapters  on  the  natural  science  of  the  mountain, 
by  getting  as  near  to  the  bones  or  skeleton  of  the  old  struc- 
ture as  possible ;  or,  in  other  words,  of  what  is  under,  in, 
and  on  the  mountain,  namely,  its  geology,  upon  which  must 
repose  its  soil,  its  organized  bodies,  its  waters,  and  downy- 
ocean  of  air  above. 


J1SCULAPIUS. 


41 


"JSscuLAPius,  (Affxfy-ios,)  the  god  of  the  medical  art,  in  the 
Homeric  poems,  not  considered  a  divinity,  and  without  descent,  is 
mentioned  as  the  father  of  Machaon  and  Podaleirius.  (II.,  ii.  731, 
iv.  194,  xi.  518.)  .  But  Homer  also  calls  those  who  practice  the  heal- 
ing art  descendants  of  Paeeon,  and,  as  Podaleirius  and  Machaon  are 
called  the  sons  of  JSsculapius,  it  has  been  inferred  that  ^Esculapius 
and  Paee'on  are  the  same  being,  and  consequently  a  divinity.  As  in 
Homer's  opinion  all  physicians  were  descended  from  Paee'on,  he  pro- 
bably considered  JEsculapius  in  the  same  light.  This  is  corroborated 
in  later  times  by  the  fact  that  Paee'on  was  identified  with  Apollo, 
-(Esculapius  being  universally  described  as  a  descendant  of  Apollo.  The 
two  sons  of  JEsculapius,  in  the  Iliad,  were  the  physicians  in  the 
Greek  army,  and  ruled  over  Tricca,  Ithome,  and  Oechalia.  The  more 
common  tradition  was  that  the  god  himself  was  a  son  of  Apollo  and 
Coronis,  the  daughter  of  Phlegyas,  a  descendant  of  Lapithes."  (Apol- 
lod.,  iii.  10,  g  3;  Pind.  Pyth.,  iii.  14,  with  the  Schol.) 

For  the  story  of  the  babe  JSsculapius,  saved  from  the  flames  by 
Hermes,  of  the  vengeance  of  Apollo,  and  the  tragical  death  of  his 
mother  Coronis,  and  her  lover,  see  Pind.,  Ov.,  Horn.,  Paus.,  Hygin., 
Apol.,  Strab.,  etc  Hermes  gave  the  boy  to  Cheiron,  (the  Centaur,) 
who  instructed  him  in  the  art  of  healing  and  in  hunting.  The  shep- 
herd Aresthanes  saw  the  boy  surrounded  by  a  lustre  like  that  of 
lightning,  and  from  his  dazzling  splendor,  or  from  his  having  been 
rescued  from  the  flames,  he  was  called,  by  the  Dorians,  atyhar/p. 
Of  his  youth  and  the  wonderful  power  of  his  manhood,  until  the  full- 
developed  divinity  assumed  the  proper  functions  of  his  sphere,  saving 
life  and  raising  the  dead,  many  astonishing  traditions  fill  the  records 
of  classical  history,  from  the  gift  of  Athena  in  the  blood  of  Gorgo, 
to  the  secret  of  the  serpents  in  the  house  of  Glaucus. 

"  These  legends,  about  one  of  the  most  important  and  interesting 
divinities  of  antiquity,  are  full  of  significance.  Various  hypotheses 
have  been  brought  forward  to  explain  the  origin  of  his  worship  in 
Greece ;  and,  while  some  consider  JEsculapius  to  have  been  origin- 
ally a  real  personage,  whom  tradition  had  connected  with  various 
marvelous  stories,  others  have  explained  all  the  legends  about  him 
as  mere  personifications  of  certain  ideas.  The  serpent,  the  perpetual 
symbol  of  ^Esculapius,  has  given  rise  to  the  opinion  that  the  worship 
was  derived  from  Egypt,  and  that  ^Esculapius  was  identical  with  the 
serpent  Cnuph,  worshiped  in  Egypt,  or  with  the  Phoenician  Esmun. 
(Euseb.  Praep.  Evang.,  i.  10;  comp.  Paus.,  vii.  23,  $  6.)  But  it  does 
not  seem  necessary  to  have  recourse  to  foreign  countries  in  order  to 
explain  the  worship  of  this  god." 
482 


"  JSsculapius  was  worshiped  all  over  Greece,  and  many  towns 
claimed  the  honor  of  his  birth.  His  temples  were  usually  built  in 
healthy  places,  on  hills  outside  of  towns  and  cities,  and  near  wells 
or  springs,  which  were  believed  to  have  healing  powers.  These 
temples  were  not  only  places  of  worship,  but  were  frequented  by 
great  numbers  of  sick  persons,  and  may,  therefore,  be  compared  to 
modern  hospitals.  (Plut.  Quaest.  Rom.,  p.  286.,  D.) 

"  The  principal  seat  of  his  worship  in  Greece  was  Epidaurus,  where 
he  had  a  temple,  surrounded  with  an  extensive  grove,  within  which  no 
one  was  allowed  to  die,  and  no  woman  to  give  birth  to  a  child.  His 
sanctuary  contained  a  magnificent  statue  of  ivory  and  gold,  the  work 
of  Thrasymedes,  in  which  he  was  represented  as  a  handsome  and 
manly  figure,  resembling  that  of  Zeus.  (Paus.,  ii.  26.) 

"  He  was  seated  on  a  throne,  holding  in  one  hand  a  staff,  and  with 
the  other  resting  upon  the  head  of  a  dragon,  (serpent,)  and  by  his 
side  lay  a  dog.  (Paus.,  ii.  27,  §  2.) 

"  Serpents  were  everywhere  connected  with  the  worship  of  .ZEscu- 
lapius,  probably  because  they  were  a  symbol  of  prudence  and  reno- 
vation, and  were  "believed  to  possess  the  power  of  discovering  herbs 
of  wondrous  powers,  as  is  indicated  in  the  story  of  ^Esculapius  and 
the  serpents  in  the  house  of  Glaucus.  (Paus.) 

"  After  jEsculapius  had  grown  up,  reports  spread  over  all  countries 
that  he  not  only  cured  all  the  sick,  but  called  the  dead  to  life  again. 
Several  persons,  whom  JEsculapius  was  believed  to  have  restored  to 
life,  are  mentioned  by  the  Scholiast  on  Pindar,  (Pyth.,  iii.  96,)  and 
by  Apollodorus,  (C.  6.)  When  he  was  exercising  this  art  upon  Glau- 
cus, Zeus  killed  JEsculapius  with  a  flash  of  lightning,  as  he  feared 
lest  men  might  gradually  contrive  to  escape  death  altogether,  (Apol., 
iii.  10,  $  4 ;)  or,  according  to  others,  because  Pluto  had  complained  of 
jEsculapius  diminishing  the  number  of  the  dead  too  much.  (Diod., 
iv.  71 ;  comp.  Schol.  Pind.,  Pyth.,  iii.  102.)  But,  on  the  request  of 
Apollo,  Zeus  placed  ^Esculapius  among  the  stars."  (Hygin.  Poet. 
Astr.,  ii.  14.) — From  Dictionary  of  Greek  and  Roman  Biography  and 
Mythology. 

483 


1.  "  Honor  a  physician  with  the  honor  due  unto  him  for  the  uses 
•which  ye  may  have  of  him :  for  the  Lord  hath  created  him. 

2.  "For  of  the  Most  High  cometh  healing,  and  he  shall  receive 
honor  of  the  king. 

3.  "  The  skill  of  the  physician  shall  lift  up  his  head,  and  in  the 
sight  of  great  men  he  shall  be  in  admiration. 

4.  "  The  Lord  has  created  medicines  out  of  the  earth,  and  he  that 
is  wise  will  not  abhor  them. 

5.  "Was  not  the  water  made  sweet  with  wood,  that  the  virtue 
thereof  might  be  known  ? 

6.  "  And  he  has  given  men  skill  that  he  might  be  honored  in  his 
marvelous  works. 

7.  "  With  such  doth  he  heal  men,  and  taketh  away  their  pains. 
12.   "Then  give  place  to  the  physician,  for  the  Lord  hath  created 

him:  let  him  not  go  from  thee,  for  thou  hast  need  of  him." — ECCL. 


"The  intelligence  denoted  by  the  leaf,  which  shall  be  for  the  use 
of  the  celestial  man,  is  called  Medicine.     A.C.  57." 

SWEDENBORQ. 


484 


BOOK     II. 


CHAPTER   I. 


ESCULAPIUS, 


"Man  is  God  wholly  manifested.     God  has  become  Man,  zero  has 

become  -\ .     Man  is  the  whole  of  arithmetic,  compacted,  however, 

out  of  all  numbers ;  he  can  therefore  produce  numbers  out  of  him- 
self. Man  is  a  complex  of  all  that  surrounds  him,  namely,  of  ele- 
ment, mineral,  plant,  and  animal." — OKEN. 


THE  regular  profession  of  medicine,  called  the  "Faculty," 
"  Hippocratic,"  or  "  Old  School,"  boasts  a  genealogy  time- 
honored  and  ancient  as  the  earth.  From  its  present  noon- 
day splendor  of  light  and  science  it  goes  into  the  obscurity 
of  the  past  for  more  than  two  thousand  years  of  authentic 
history,  and  still  on  through  realms  of  myths  and  dreams, 
until,  in  the  mists  and  shadows  of  primeval  worlds,  it  mingles 
its  exegesis  with  the  fables  of  the  gods.  These  stories  of 
the  ages,  these  legends  of  the  sages,  have  nothing  in  them 
accidental,  arbitrary,  or  factitious;  for  myths  are  but  sha- 
dows of  more  transcendent  facts,  having  necessary  and  im- 
mortal existence  in  the  depths  of  nature  and  the  soul. 

The  profession  of  the  healing  art,  divine  in  its  origin, 
grave  and  grand  in  its  scientific  evolution,  sacred  and  sub- 
lime in  its  ultimate  functions,  stands  as  a  necessary  part  of 
the  order  of  things,  old  as  humanity,  and  inseparable  from 
its  existence  upon  earth ;  for  when  did  not  man  suffer,  and 
when  did  not  his  brother  try  to  relieve  him  ?  Synchronous 
with  man's  advent  upon  the  planet,  the  chronicles  of  this 

41*  485 


486  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

art,  inaugurated  by  the  oracles  of  Fate,  are  as  absolutely  a 
part  of  the  inevitable,  and  as  genuine  a  fragment  of  the 
universe,  as  the  beautiful  "song  of  the  stars."  As  the 
creation  of  the  human  body  is  the  first  significant  fact  of  its 
history,  its  protection  and  preservation  from  the  agencies 
of  change  and  destruction  about  it  must  certainly  be  the 
second  consideration  of  importance,  scarcely  less  in  its 
grandeur,  surely  equally  solemn  in  its  end.  The  soul,  in- 
carnated once,  demands  immortality  as  a  right  of  its  own 
being,  and  would  ask  it,  also,  for  the  body.  What  art  so 
grand,  then,  as  the  art  of  preserving  and  prolonging  life,  and 
what  so  godlike  in  aspiration  as  the  effort  to  restore  man 
to  the  splendor  of  his  unfallen  youth,  and  save  him  from  the 
tortures  of  pain  and  suffering,  of  disease  and  death  ? 

All  the  races  of  men,  but  especially  the  cultivated  and 
dominant,  have  ever  had  a  clear  perception  of  this  great 
fact ;  and  through  the  darkness  and  ignorance  of  barbarous 
tribes,  and  the  light,  culture,  and  science  of  the  illuminated  and 
progressive  nations,  the  professor  of  the  art  of  healing  has 
ever  been  regarded  as  the  possessor  of  the  secrets  of  life  and 
death,  and  held  in  veneration  and  love,  allied  to  the  worship 
of  the  supernals.*  The  scriptures  of  the  races,  sacred  and 
profane,  record  his  achievements,  and  the  history  of  his 
miracles  is  embalmed  in  ejaculations  of  ceaseless  wonder 
and  admiration.  Their  monuments  of  art  have  registered 
the  highest  tidal  waves  of  the  progress  and  intellectual 
growth  of  man,  by  associating  his  entire  spiritual  unfold- 
ing, the  advancement  and  perfection  of  his  nature,  with 
the  deities  which  preside  over  the  fate  and  destiny  of  the 
material  world,  and  the  physical  salvation  of  humanity. 
The  wondrous  intellect  of  the  Greek  has  filled  the  horizon 
of  human  vision  for  hundreds  of  years.  With  a  physical 
conformation  perfect,  and  rendered  godlike  by  a  habitat  in 

*  Priest  and  physician  were  originally  united  in  one  functionary, 
and  should  still  be  one.  "  The  Asclepiadee  were  also  regarded  as  an 
order  or  caste  of  priests,  and  for  a  long  period  the  practice  of  medi- 
cine was  intimately  connected  with  religion." 


JESCULAPIUS.  487 

which  the  perfection  and  splendor  of  nature  were  revealed 
and  the  beauty  of  the  world  exhausted,  he  has,  in  all  his 
creations,  made  the  ideal  real,  by  an  eternal  production  of 
himself,  "his  body  absolutely  expressing  his  soul." 

In  his  highest  efforts,  forever  captivated  by  truth  and  beauty, 
he  became  the  prophet,  priest,  and  king  of  nature,  making  his 
artistic  or  reproduced  world  bright  with  the  immortal  stars  of 
thought,  redolent  of  Olympian  airs,  aromatic  shades,  haunts 
and  bowers  of  the  gods.  The  muses,  the  heavenly  nine,  hover 
around  his  path  of  progress,  and  the  glory  of  an  unde- 
bauched,  unfallen  world  is  shadowed  forth  in  "shapes  whose 
beauty  is  truest  and  rarest,  in  visions,  in  soul,  the  grandest 
that  crowd  on  the  tear-dimmed  eye,"  in  the  prophetic  oracles 
of  Delphi,  in  the  whispering  of  the  groves  of  Dodona.  In 
all  his  intellectual  manifestations  true ;  true  in  the  symbol- 
ism of  the  world  embodied  in  his  poetical  mythology ;  true 
in  the  instincts  of  his  mind  in  the  path  of  science ;  perfect 
in  the  world  of  the  senses  and  understanding,  his  genesis 
of  the  healing  art  is  the  embodiment  of  wisdom.  What  but 
a  Grecian  hand  could  chisel  an  Apollo  of  Belvidere,  the 
ideal  physical  ?  and  what  but  a  Grecian  head  could  create 
the  magical  romance  of  the  son  of  Zeus  and  Leto,  the  ideal 
spiritual? — both  worlds  united  in  the  form  of  the  God  of 
Medicine,  Divination,  and  Poetry. 

"Mine  is  the  invention  of  the  charming  lyre; 
Sweet  notes  and  heavenly  numbers  I  inspire. 
Medicine  is  mine ;   what  herbs  and  simples  grow 
In  fields,  in  forests,  all  their  powers  I  know, 
And,  am  the  great  physician  called  below." 

Thus  muses  the  charmer  of  high  Olympus,  and  thus  the 
ethereal  god  of  the  gods  announces  the  duties  of  his  trans- 
cendent sphere,  and  prefers  the  sympathies  of  heaven  to 
sufferers  in  the  gloomy  realms  of  pain,  uniting,  in  his  blessed 
form,  the  spirituality  of  thought  and  intellect,  with  the  bene- 
ficence and  grandeur  of  love  and  mercy. 

"  Whatever  we  may  think  of  the  modes  of  explaining  the 


488  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

origin  and  nature  of  Apollo,  one  point  is  certain,  and  at- 
tested by  thousands  of  facts,  that  Apollo  and  his  worship, 
his  festivals  and  oracles,  had  more  influence  upon  the  Greeks 
than  any  other  god.  It  may  be  safely  asserted,  that  the 
Greeks  would  never  have  become  what  they  were,  without 
the  worship  of  Apollo ;  in  him  the  brightest  side  of  the 
Grecian  mind  is  reflected."  This  radiant  Olympian,  proud- 
est in  his  power  of  the  supernals,  the  proper  creator  of  Gre- 
cian thought  and  art,  was  accounted  the  father  of  JEscu- 
lapius,  the  special  God  of  Medicine.  That  his  temple,  at 
Delphi  in  Phocis,  should  be  situated  on  the  hill  Parnassus, 
"  umbilicus  orbis  terrarum,'r  the  centre  of  the  world,  at  once 
reveals  the  fact,  "that  deep  wisdom  lies  under  these  fables 
of  time,"  that  the  ancient  poet  was  a  seer,  and,  in  giving  a 
supernatural  origin  to  an  art  the  most  honored  and  useful 
of  the  callings  of  men,  he  but  uttered  the  voice  of  that 
"necessity  which  is  the  mother  of  the  world."  Let  all  honor 
be  given  to  the  ancients ;  all  veneration  to  the  gods  of 
Olympus. 

From  this  proud  height  of  thought  and  art ;  from  this 
ancient  Eden  of  Grecian  poetry  and  philosophy,  itself 
stretching  into  still  more  venerable  and  primeval  soli- 
tudes of  time,  comes  the  regular  profession  of  medicine 
of  this  hour.  Down  to  this  moment  it  has  struggled 
through  ages  of  the  soul's  travail ;  through  time-honored 
battlings  with  worlds  of  night  and  chaos,  ignorance  and 
darkness ;  through  dawnings  of  light ;  through  manifold 
tribulations  and  difficulties  ;  through  the  ceaseless  efforts  of 
the  best  brains  and  hearts  the  races  have  ever  produced ; 
still  on,  until,  in  the  blaze  and  splendor  of  the  inductive  pro- 
cess of  reasoning,  the  absolute  of  medical  science  was  re- 
vealed, and  now  stands,  with  its  granite  peaks  of  "  positive 
philosophy,"  in  the  light  and  glory  of  an  everlasting  day. 

Still,  while  we  gaze  with  awe  into  the  past,  and  reverence 
with  filial  veneration  the  old — following  that  magical  river 
into  the  charmed  land,  where  fact  and  fable  dance  in  the 
dawn  of  thought  and  reason,  and  men  and  gods  interact — 


AESCULAPIUS.  489 

we  must  not  forget  that  the  "  past  is  death's,"  the  present 
only  is  our  own ;  that  progress  and  growth  are  written  on 
all  things;  that  a  flowing  river,  a  seed-filled  field,  is  this 
time ;  that  there  are  no  ends  or  beginnings,  but  only  arres- 
tations  and  continuations ;  that  there  is  nothing  erect  or 
fixed,  but  only  leanings  and  slidings  everywhere — no  rest 
even  for  the  rock,*  which  will  be  a  plant ;  the  plant, 
"  struggling  to  become  a  different  and  to  attain  the  light," 
must  be  an  animal,  while  the  animal  stirs  in  its  somnambu- 
lism and  dreams,  and  would  fain  be  a  man.  Let  us  accredit 
this  revelation  of  the  growth  and  development  of  the  uni- 
verse revealed  by  science,  and,  while  with  sentiments  of 
gratitude  and  joy  we  celebrate  the  achievements  of  the  mind 
in  the  past,  and  glorify  its  wonderful  power,  recorded  in  the 
written  word,  or  books  of  the  world,  "  its  monuments  more 
enduring  than  brass,"  we  must  not  forget  that  "  in  all  scrip- 
tures, the  letter  kills,"  the  spirit  alone  is  alive,  growing, 
reproductive,  immortal.  With  sadness,  then,  we  must  also 
arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  a  painfully  servile  subjugation 
of  the  soul  has  been  achieved  ;  that  the  old,  with  dogmatism 
and  tyranny,  has  always  demanded  an  agonizing  humility 
and  worship,  because  it  is  old;  that  the  lessons  of  the 
ancient  schools,  assuming  the  overwhelming  prestige  of  an- 

*  The  ordinary  apprehension  that  the  rock  reposes  in  eternal  still- 
ness in  its  geological  fastness,  is  erroneous.  (See  note  at  end  of 
chapter  ^sculapius,  page  534.)  One  extravagant  dreamer,  Evan 
Hopkins,  (on  connection  of  geology  with  terrestrial  magnetism  and 
the  general  polarity  of  matter,)  has  made  it  out  clearly  (he  thinks) 
that  the  epidermis,  or  stone  mantle  of  the  globe,  is  in  perpetual 
motion,  creeping  north,  and  turning  within  itself  by  a  stupen- 
dous galvanic  devouring,  and  has  also  fixed  the  rates  of  its  pro- 
gression by  lines  in  thousands  of  years.  As  the  continents  and 
most  of  the  bodies  of  land  visible  above  the  watery  envelope  of  the 
planet  have  their  heads  or  larger  extremities  north  and  their  tails  or 
terminating  points  south,  it  comes  that  the  tadpole-theory  of  develop- 
ment holds  good  in  the  movements  of  worlds  as  well  as  the  growth 
of  frogs.  Onward  toward  the  north  star  crawl  the  continents  and 
islands,  and  onward  to  the  north  is  progress  and  the  watchword  of 
development.  Advance,  Hopkins,  with  your  rhinoceros  hide  of  the 
world ! 


490  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

tiquity  and  the  "past,"  have  robbed,  and  dispossessed  us  of 
aboriginal  and  filial  consort  with  the  fountains  of  influx  from 
the  equally  divine  present.  This  wretched  tribute  is  ex- 
torted at  the  fearful  cost  of  the  total  integrity  of  man,  and 
the  emasculation  of  the  profoundest  attributes  of  his  being. 
Why  pay  the  word  by  an  unqualified  surrender  of  its  own 
life  ?  Why  capitulate  on  the  fatal  condition  of  the  annihi- 
lation of  the  spirit  ?  The  book  or  word  is  only  a  bridge 
over  a  yawning  gulf  of  the  past ;  a  floating  raft  of  logs  it 
may  have  been,  or  a  rainbow-arch  sublimely  spanning  the 
heavens,  but  still  a  bridge.  Shall  we  dwell  perpetually  on 
the  bridge  ?  The  word  is  a  ladder ;  when  the  height  is 
achieved,  shall  we  stay  to  glorify  the  ladder  alone  ?  The 
word  is  a  scaffold.  When  the  spiritual  edifice  is  constructed 
in  symmetrical  proportions,  shall  the  scaffold,  once  essential, 
now  useless,  stand  a  persistent  deformity  ?  The  word  is  a 
fountain  of  inspiration.  If  the  waters  have  shrunken  away, 
of  what  value  is  the  fountain  ? 

But  the  total  record  or  word  of  the  world,  it  may  be 
affirmed,  is  the  greatest  fact  of  the  world's  history.  As  an 
exponent  of  the  world  it  stands,  then,  a  tropical  mountain, 
stretching  through  all  depths  and  heights,  all  times  and 
spaces,  revealing  the  spiritual  growths  of  the  ages,  the 
Andes  of  the  soul.  At  its  base,  warm,  genial,  intense,  a 
world  of  light  and  life,  exhaustless  in  its  fullness,  illimit- 
able in  its  profusion,  stunning  and  bewildering  in  its 
excessive  brilliancy,  blooms  a  sempiternal  youth.  Here 
sport  and  babble  the  babes  of  the  senses ;  here  glow  with 
warmth  and  ardor  the  first  fiery  thoughts  of  the  chil- 
dren of  the  sun.  Higher  upon  the  mountain  is  the  belt  of 
umbrageous  (deciduous)  woods,  with  foliage  waving  in  the 
winds  of  temperate  climes,  and  whose  cool,  sequestered 
shades  invite  to  contemplation  and  dreams.  Here,  in  "  aca- 
demic groves,"  have  wandered  the  men  of  thought  and  re- 
flection, the  philosophers  of  the  intellect,  the  seekers  of 
truth,  and  talked  to  unborn  millions.  Still  higher,  the 
solemn  evergreen  forest  stands,  cold  and  dark  ;  and  here  the 


JESCULAP1US.  491 

brave  preachers  of  righteousness,  the  grave  reformers  of 
truth,  the  earnest  seekers  of  holiness,  have  chiseled  their 
stern  edicts  on  stone ;  and  here,  also,  amid  deepening  sha- 
dows, have  sung  the  "  pensive  muses,  whom  dismal  scenes 
delight,  frequent  at  tombs,  and  in  the  realms  of  night." 
And  yet  still  higher,  looms  the  snow-capped  summit,  lofty 
and  lonely,  cold  and  silent  as  eternity,  where  the  inspired 
few  have  spoken  the  words  of  life.  Here,  in  "infinite  but 
incomprehensible  solitude,  yet  in  the  boundless  self-suffi- 
ciency of  their  blessed  natures,"  the  martyrs  and  prophets 
have  uttered  their  oracles,  and,  in  love  and  worship,  brooded 
in  loneliness,  with  the  silent  stars,  over  the  depths  of  God. 

Endless  seem  the  attractions  of  the  word,  and  beautiful 
continually  are  the  first  songs  of  joy  when  the  soul  has 
found  its  symbol.  Is  it  strange  that  myriads  of  thoughtful, 
cultivated  human  spirits,  should  thus  cling  to  the  word,  and, 
like  happy  children,  play  with  the  toy  when  its  meaning  was 
long  forgotten  ?  Touching,  sadly  touching  is  this  awe  and 
veneration  for  the  garments  and  bones  of  the  saints, — this 
worship  of  the  wood  of  the  true  cross  ;  and  melancholy  is  this 
reverential  retrospection  into  the  past,  the  dreary  domain  of 
night  and  silence.  Still  sadder  is  the  backward  longing,  and 
still  more  fatal  is  the  backward  looking,  as  the  only  rest  of 
the  spirit.  Especially  is  this  reliance  on  the  past  alone,  in 
science,  fatal  to  future  growth  and  development ;  this  back- 
ward looking  alone  is  bad,  and  worse  than  it  seems,  in  all 
departments  of  thought  and  knowledge.  An  ingenuous 
criticism  of  the  regular  profession  of  medicine  of  this  hour 
is,  that  it  demands  a  deeper  philosophy,  and  needs  a  higher 
faith.  It  asks  a  philosophy  that  has  come  into  the  world 
unembarrassed  by  mortgages  to  the  thought  and  intellect  of 
the  dead,  and  uncumbered  by  the  mouldy  formulae  of  de- 
parted generations,  and  without  the  oppressive  details  of  a 
too  painful  genealogy.  The  Faith  which  it  deeply  needs  is 
not  a  blind,  indiscriminate  worship  of  traditional  power ; 
no  veneration  for  the  "word  of  the  master;"  no  uninquiring 
acceptance  of  the  imaginative  fables  of  other  days,  or  the 


492  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

waning  fancies  of  departed  races,  but  a  living  and  abiding 
conviction  and  trust,  that  the  world  is  still  in  the  rosy  light 
of  its  dawn ;  that  the  "days  of  inspiration"  are  not  passed; 
that  the  wise  man  who  exclaimed,  in  anguish,  "I  have  lost  a 
day!"  was  a  "king  without  a  crown;"  that  the  world  is 
really  not  faded,  spent,  and  gone  into  dotage,  and  near  its 
final  deliration.  This  flimsy  garment  of  a  theory  is  only  a 
fact,  so  far  as  nature  indorses  it,  and  no  farther. 

In  medicine,  as  in  other  departments  of  knowledge,  it  is, 
and  ever  has  been,  that  "  Genius  is  always  sufficiently  the 
enemy  of  genius  by  over-influence."  The  word  of  the  in- 
spired man,  instead  of  becoming  warm  life-blood  in  the  veins, 
or  growing  seed  in  the  soil,  has  always  hardened  into  a 
fossil,  and  made  a  stumbling-stone  for  long  ages  to  come. 
Shakspeare  is  born,  and  having  scaled  the  heavens  of  poetry, 
henceforward,  the  riders  of  Pegassus  must  hobble  the  celes- 
tial steed  with  his  yoke,  having  first  constituted  him  the 
great  ideal  artist  in  the  realms  of  imagination  and  fairie. 
Hunter,  Stahl,  and  Broussais  are  born,  and  the  human  race 
bleed  rivers  of  blood  for  ages,  the  world  having  resolved 
itself  into  a  hospital  for  the  cure  of  inflammations  alone — 
phlogiston  (<f>koYiaroq)  being  their  sole  morbific  power — under 
the  plenary  inspiration  of  the  "  Fundamental  Principles  of 
Inflammation,"  and  the  divine  aegis  of  "  Physiological  Medi- 
cine." Each  age,  in  superstitious  veneration,  turns  its  eyes 
to  the  past,  and  being  sorrowfully  indigent  in  the  possessions 
of  the  present,  it  contents  itself  by  magnifying  the  claims  of 
the  dead,  and  reciting  with  veneration  the  record  of  their 
achievements.  Each  of  its  new  books  is  but  a  votive  leaf 
on  the  altar  of  the  "worship  of  genius."  Still  lingering 
around  the  fires  of  departed  worlds,  it  would  "  roast  its  eggs 
with  the  cinders  of  extinct  volcanoes."  With  its  eye  fixed 
on  the  distant  mountain-tops  of  the  past,  it  hopes  for  the 
dawn  there  "  when  it  is  really  sunset,  and  night  is  coming 
fast."  With  mournful  assiduity  it  stirs  the  dead  embers  of 
lights  gone  by,  having  hopes  of  illumination  and  heat,  when 
life  has  departed  and  death  has  come.  It  hangs  with  devo- 


.ESCULAPIUS.  493 

tion  and  love  over  the  dust  of  departed  greatness,  and  delights 
to  glorify  the  voices  of  antiquity  by  building  monuments 
of  wonder  and  admiration  to  their  greatness.  It  writes 
endless  commentaries  upon  what  has  been  done  in  the  past, 
but  has  no  hopes  or  aspirations  for  the  future,  or  what  may 
be  done  in  the  hour  that  now  is,  or  that  is  to  come.  In  the 
shade  and  darkness  of  long  and  mournful  eclipses  the  races 
have  wandered.  Some  colossal  man  came  upon  earth  and 
scored  the  surface  of  the  planet  with  his  name,  attributes, 
and  works,  and,  for  hundreds  of  years,  his  form  arises, 
darkening  the  sun  of  truth  and  casting  a  baleful  shadow,  in 
the  deep  darkness  of  whose  night  whole  races  have  reposed 
and  slept.  They  have  ever  said,  "  in  the  shadow  of  this 
rock  in  the  wilderness  we  will  rest."  The  sleepless  vigilance, 
the  never-tiring  exertion  essential  to  growth,  the  travail  of 
thought,  they  will  not  endure.  The  search  for  truth  de- 
mands toughness  of  fibre  of  heart  and  brain,  and  few  men 
have  either  will  or  power  to  work  in  the  rugged  ways  lead- 
ing to  the  mountain-top,  whose  head  is  in  the  light  of  the 
day  of  knowledge  and  thought. 

In  medicine,  as  in  other  departments  of  human  knowl- 
edge, the  past  has  hobbled  and  chained  the  human  mind, 
and  postponed  the  revelation  of  the  future  or  time  to 
come  by  a  superstitious  veneration  for  the  "old."  Too 
much  faith  in  tradition,  too  much  reliance  on  the  au- 
thority of  other  days,  is  the  sickness  of  the  schools  of 
medical  science,  as  of  all  other  schools  whose  history  goes 
into  the  past.  The  "  word  of  the  master"  has  always  been 
the  oath,  and  inertia  and  torpidity  of  spirit  prevailed,  the 
last  ripple-mark  of  the  advancing  wave  rising  and  harden- 
ing into  a  mountain  of  rock,  and  constituting  for  the  time 
the  horizon  or  visible  line  of  union  of  earth  and  heaven.  And 
this  perception  brings  at  once  the  staring  fact  to  the  mind 
that  the  medical  science  of  this  hour,  through  drowsiness 
and  inappetency,  through  indolence  and  want  of  courage  to 
investigate,  is  too  grossly  material  in  its  philosophy.  With 
eye  and  scalpel  constantly  groping  after  material  processes 

42 


494  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

and  functions  only,  it  reveals  facts  of  the  senses  and  under- 
standing alone,  giving  an  interpretation  of  nature  which 
leaves  the  mind  in  the  mire.  Gravity  and  the  affinities  of 
chemistry,  pathology  or  the  gross  outward  results  of  dis- 
ease, it  recognizes  with  sufficient  precision.  It  does  not 
believe  that  the  fall  of  an  apple  could  introduce  the  mind  of 
man  to  the  mysteries  of  the  mechanism  of  the  heavens,  and 
reveal  the  miraculous  dance  of  the  worlds  in  time  and  space ; 
it  does  not  believe  that  a  flash  of  the  soul  in  the  darkness 
of  the  night  called  life,  may  illume  the  celestial  mountain- 
tops  of  undiscovered  continents  of  knowledge  ;  that  gleams 
or  great  intuitions  of  the  mind,  may  let  us  as  deeply  into  the 
laws  of  nature  as  the  anatomist's  knife  or  chemist's  crucible. 
It  forgets  that  nature  is  but  a  name  for  an  effect,  whose 
cause  is  the  absolute  and  infinite  spirit;  assiduously  and 
devoutly  acquainting  itself  with  external  results,  material 
phenomena  merely,  it  does  not  reflect  that  the  "  visible  is  but 
the  terminus  of  the  invisible;"  that  what  we  see  and  touch 
is  dead;  that  "the  body  is  itself  but  the  drowsy  brute  that 
the  Eternal  hath  yoked  to  the  chariot  of  life  to  urge  man 
across  the  finite." 

The  constantly  recurring  mistake  of  the  profession,  in  its 
phantasmal  dance  of  theories,  has  always  been  infinite  faith 
in  matter.  From  earliest  dreams  of  atomists,  humeralists, 
and  solidists,  mechanical  laws,  and  powers  of  polarity,  with 
elixirs  of  life  and  philosophers'  stones,  to  the  modern  swarm 
of  drugs  whose  name  is  legion,  the  profession  has  been 
blundering  over  its  mountains  of  matter,  and  had  its  faith 
only  in  heroic  doses  of  heroic  remedies,  and  in  the  most 
absolute  of  "material  aids."  Its  theory  of  nature  is  gross 
and  mechanical,  an  hypothesis  accounting  for  the  universe  on 
the  purely  physical  laws  of  natural  philosophy,  architecture, 
and  chemistry.  Thus,  in  its  conception  of  diseases  also,  it 
is  like  the  medicine-man  of  the  Thibetans ;  believing  and 
calling  the  destroying  powers  material  devils,  it  would  scare 
them  into  cages  with  gourds  and  calabashes,  and  destroy 
them  with  the  sword. 


JESCULAPIUS.  495 

This  is  mournful,  and  profanely  closes  the  avenues  to 
higher  and  better  light;  for,  although  "matter  may  be 
one  of  the  grandest  facts  that  a  finite  intelligence  can 
know,"  yet  can  it  also  cognize  with  true  spiritual  precision 
and  absolute  knowledge,  other  existences,  powers,  and  forces 
of  the  world.  "  The  business  of  philosophy  is  to  discover 
truths  which,  as  first  principles,  are  to  give  intelligibility, 
and  which,  therefore,  cannot  be  deduced  from  the  facts  of 
experience  which  they  are  intended  to  explain,  and  to 
which  they  are  to  give  unity  and  connection;  they  are  truths 
supersensuous.  We  demand,  and  the  rational  mind  cannot 
be  satisfied  with  less,  that  the  facts,  phenomena,  and 
changes  which  form  the  sphere  of  our  sensible  experience, 
and,  collectively,  are  called  nature,  shall  be  rendered  intelli- 
gible to,  and  rationally  accounted  for,  by  our  mind.  The 
instincts  of  reason  lead  us  to  investigate  what  the  realities 
are  of  which  the  phenomena  are  but  the  outward  signs." 
What  are  the  true  moving  forces  of  the  universe  ?  through 
what  miraculous  causes  does  this  multiform  phenomenal  per- 
form the  dramaturgy  of  nature  ?  Around  us  is  a  fullness  of 
life  and  power,  and  the  endless  procession  goes  forward  with 
ceaseless  regularity,  pointing  to  the  net  of  golden  threads  of 
living  connection  in  all  things,  and  asserting  through  all 
the  kingdoms  of  being  the  tyranny  of  law.  We  arrive  at 
last,  in  our  investigations,  in  the  dread  presence  of  a  range 
of  forces  in  whose  fingers  the  material  universe,  or  matter 
with  gravity  and  attraction,  is  as  clay  in  the  potter's  hands. 
They  have  nothing  in  common  with  the  sixty  ponderable, 
elementary  bodies,  recognized  and  catalogued  by  chemistry, 
or  any  of  their  combinations,  constituting  the  multifarious 
forms  of  outward  existences,  but  antagonize  in  every  single 
attribute  this  world  of  matter  with  sensible  qualities.  One 
class  seeking,  as  if  by  the  instincts  of  a  blind  and  drowsy 
soul,  to  rest  and,  sleep,  holding  globes  and  atoms  safely  to- 
gether in  concreted  masses  and  revolving  spheres ;  the  other, 
essentially  active,  alive,  and  quick,  without  an  element  of 
sameness  or  affinity  with  ponderable  bodies,  but  dissolving, 
rending  asunder,  and  separating  all  things  as  by  a  fearful  in- 


496  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

stinct  of  dissolution,  having  neither  weight,  form,  nor  any 
quality,  primary  or  secondary,*  appreciable  to  the  senses, 
making  iron  fluid  as  water,  and,  with  irresistible  energy,  me- 
tamorphosing the  granite  into  grass  and  ether.  These  agents 
or  invisible  powers  of  existence  have  ever  attracted  the  at- 
tention of  men,  and  invited  to  investigation,  and  theories  of 
the  imponderables  and  of  life  have  long  been  recorded. 
The  imponderables  and  vital  powers  are  the  true  moving 
forces,  the  real  dynamic  agents  of  existence. 

In  the  plastic  fingers  of  these  dread  creatures  all  matter 
reels  and  dances.  Nature  seems  but  a  masquerade  of  these 
miraculous  wonder-working  powers,  now  dreadful  in  the 
thunder-storm,  now  beautiful  in  the  gentle  wind,  now  majes- 
tic in  the  animal  and  tree,  now  magical  and  lovely  in  the 
flower,  insect,  and  bird,  and  without  whose  perpetual  play 
the  organic  world  would  soon  become  a  reeking  corpse. 
How  long  shall  it  be  before  the  atomic  philosopher,  with  his 
system  of  dead  particles  performing  the  pantomime  of  life 
as  fatal  machinery,  shall  be  superseded  by  a  real  philosophy 
of  the  dynamics  of  the  world  ?  The  hour  demands  a  rational 
philosophy  of  the  imponderables ;  also  a  more  searching  and 
critical  recognition  of  the  laws  and  action  of  the  vital 
forces.  It  likewise  asks  the  true  hygienic  and  therapeutic 
powers  of  the  imponderables,  as  of  all  influences  that  bear 
upon  the  phenomena  of  life  in  health  and  disease.  This 
will  surely  come.  Chemistry  has,  with  a  precision  that 
seems  wonderful,  told  the  story  of  the  sixty  ponderables, 
and  left  a  catalogue  of  elemental  bodies  and  their  laws  of 
relationship,  or  powers  of  combination,  which  promises,  at 
last,  that,  by  vigilance  and  patience,  absolute  knowledge  will 
be  attained,  and  nature  reduced  to  a  familiar  laboratory. 
That  this  is  demonstrable,  can  easily  be  seen  by  comparing 
the  present  precise  and  profound  works  on  chemistry  with 
even  the  comparatively  recent  dreams  of  the  alchemists  and 
the  older  chemists.  The  vitalist,  or  student  of  organized 

*  Primary,  extension  and  divisibility.  Secondary,  color,  taste, 
smell,  etc. 


-&SCULAPIUS.  497 

matter,  has  also  expanded  his  domain  immensely,  and  the 
microscope  appears  in  triumph  with  its  beautifully-exhausted 
and  subjugated  cell,  whose  last  phantastic  phase  it  has  dis- 
covered, whose  deepest  secret  of  structure  and  combination 
it  has  told.  For  the  expansions  in  the  department  of  organ- 
ized bodies,  consult  the  works  of  the  physiologists  and  anat- 
omists, vegetable  and  animal.  For  profound  and  rational 
dissertations  on  the  vital  powers,  see  the  extensive  literature 
of  the  medical  profession,  the  philosophers,  and  physiophi- 
losophers.  Surely  in  the  wake  of  all  this  light  must  follow 
the  exhaustive  analysis,  and  true  philosophy  of  the  impon- 
derables, and  their  connection  with  the  ponderables,  both  in 
the  worlds  of  organic  and  inorganic  matter  1  Then,  also, 
must  come  the  greatest  consummation,  the  true  end  of  sci- 
ence, the  answer  to  the  long  and  agonizing  prayer  of  the 
intellect,  the  philosophy  and  practical  application  of  the 
imponderables  as  protective  and  curative  agents,  or  real 
hygienic  and  therapeutic  powers  of  the  world. 

In  the  mean  time  there  are  not  wanting  systems  full  of 
pretenses  and  impertinent  affectations  of  philosophies  of  all 
things,  and,  multitudinous  as  the  world  is  in  many  things,  it 
is  not  least  productive  in  dreams  of  vital  poioers,  theories 
of  imponderables,  "  philosophies  of  spiritual  manifesta- 
tions," "mesmerisms,"  and  nothingisms, — mushrooms  of  the 
night,  with  medical  theories  built  thereon,  that  affect  to  have 
unlocked  the  secrets  of  Nature,  and  hold  the  keys  to  the 
"realms  of  shade."  And  here,  as  ever,  in  the  thick  dark- 
ness, "  birds  of  evil  omen  are  upon  the  wing ;  the  dead  walk, 
the  living  dream."  The  problem  to  solve  for  the  genius  of 
the  history  of  medical  science  of  the  present  time,  is  the  true 
significance,  the  positively  philosophical  exposition  of  the 
pompous  pretenses  that  have  assumed  the  names  of  new 
medical  systems  or  theories,  and  new  philosophies  of  spirit 
and  matter.  The  regular  profession,  coming  from  antiquity, 
hoary-headed  with  years,  wise  according  to  the  ancients,  and 
having  the  intellect  and  conservative  forces  of  the  whole 
past  to  indorse  it,  is  now  beset  by  legions  of  parasites, 

42* 


498  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

monsters  of  night  and  chaos  ;  "  mumblements  from  the  lake 
of  eternal  sleep."  This  swarm  of  gad-flies,  like  the  plagues 
of  Egypt,  the  curses  of  Pharaoh,  are  ceaseless  in  their  efforts 
to  scare  the  college  from  its  proprieties,  and  to  alarm  the 
toga  and  tripod  in  their  sanctity. 

In  steep  and  sour  antagonism  to  the  ancient  formulae  of 
medical  philosophy,  the  fruit  of  that  highly  respectable  old 
tree  rooted  in  the  actual,  with  all  nature  to  defend  her,  comes 
this  party  of  innovators,  constituting  the  category  of  fashion- 
able and  impertinent  quackeries  of  the  hour.  Some  of  these, 
ignoring  matter  as  matter  with  fixed  and  unalterable  laws, 
addressing  the  senses  and  intellect  of  man,  try  to  make  it 
spirit  with  omnipotent  power  by  dilution  and  trituration ; 
others,  profanely  setting  aside  the  time-honored  division, 
that  venerable  classification  of  all  things  into  the  four  sensi- 
ble old  elements,  namely,  earth,  air,  fire,  and  water,  aver 
that  man  is  a  fish,  and  requires  only  one  of  them  for  his 
medium  of  existence,  and  that  he  ought  to  live,  move,  and 
have  his  being  in  water  ;  while  others,  dropping  entirely  the 
sensible  universe,  appeal  directly  to  the  supernals,  and, 
through  heaven-directed  influxes  and  divinely-inspired  me- 
dia, summon  the  spirits  from  the  "vasty  deep"  to  reveal 
the  hidden  secrets  of  disease,  to  dispatch  the  dirty  chores  of 
the  body,  and  abolish  its  nasty  obstructions. 

Of  these  heterodox  and  belligerent  schisms,  (for  schools, 
their  crude,  heterogeneous,  and  inconceivable  agglomeration 
of  dreams  cannot  be  called,)  some  are  quite  hydra-headed 
and  formidable,  armed  with  the  true  poison-fangs  of  the 
serpent  Error,  and  thus,  being  real  agencies  of  death,  and 
clearly  belonging  to  the  deviVs  department  of  strategies, 
lies,  and  baleful  enchantments,  eternizing  evil,  legitimating 
murder,  and  forming  true  vampirisms  on  earth.  Others 
wane  away  into  the  confines  of  inanition  and  stupidity,  con- 
stituting the  lowest  systems  of  vulgar  and  fraudulent  deceits 
and  old-womanish  delusions,  until,  in  the  limbo  of  absolute 
fatuity,  they  terminate  in  the  "  sound  and  fury  of  the  idiot's 
story,  signifying  nothing,"  noise  and  smoke  overclouding 


AESCULAPIUS.  499 

the  splendors  of  the  heaven  of  human  reason  and  common 
sense. 

In  the  van  of  this  army  of  innovators,  comes  the  Ger- 
man dreamer  and  mystic,  Hahnemann.  From  the  land  of 
visions  and  seers,  from  the  charmed  realm  of  metaphysical 
figments  and  poetical  fables,  the  true  home-world  of  spiritual 
sea-serpents,  mermaids,  "gorgons,  hydras,  and  chimeras 
dire,"  comes  this  portentous  shape,  "form  of  the  formless," 
this  inconceivable  being. 

"The  shadow  came!  a  tall,  thin,  gray-haired  figure, 
That  looked  as  it  had  been  a  shade  on  earth ; 
Quick  in  its  motions,  and  with  an  air  of  vigor, 
But  naught  to  mark  its  breeding  or  its  birth. 
Now  it  waxed  little,  and  again  grew  bigger, 
With  now  an  air  of  gloom  or  savage  mirth ; 
But,  as  you  gazed  upon  its  features,  they 
Changed  every  instant — to  what  none  could  say. 
The  more  intently  the  ghosts  gazed,  the  less 
Could  they  distinguish  whose  the  features  were ; 
The  devil  himself  seemed  puzzled  even  to  guess ; 
They  varied  like  a  dream — now  here,  now  there ; 
And  several  people  swore,  from  out  the  press, 
They  knew  him  perfectly ;  and  one  could  swear 
He  was  his  father,  upon  which  another 
Was  sure  he  was  his  mothers  cousin's  brother  ; 
Another  that  he  was  a  duke,  or  knight, 
An  orator,  a  lawyer,  or  a  priest, 
A  nabob,  a  man-midwife  ;  but  the  wight 
Mysterious,  changed  his  countenance  at  least 
As  oft  as  they  their  minds :  though  in  full  sight 
He  stood,  the  puzzle  was  increased ; 
The  man  ivas  a  phantasmagoria  in 
Himself, — he  was  so  volatile  and  thin." 

This  shadow,  like  the  heroes  of  Ossian,  cloudy,  vague,  and 
indefinite,  comes  surrounded  by  mists  and  inarticulate  mut- 
terings,  a  true  son  of  the  realm  of  transcendental  ecstasy  and 
dreamy  philosophy.  With  Thor-hammer  in  hand  he  tried  to 
crush  the  skulls  of  the  past,  essayed  to  pulverize  to  infinitesi- 
mal powder  the  labors  of  the  intellect  of  man  for  six  thousand 
years,  to  dissipate  and  dilute  into  an  ocean  of  nothingness 


500  THE   MOUNTAIN.    . 

the  records  and  monuments  of  his  honest  work,  and  cease- 
less spiritual  growth  for  ages  of  vigilance  and  effort,  to  re- 
verse the  poles  of  the  world,  and,  riding  supreme  upon  "the 
wings  of  blarney,"  and  the  virtue  and  omnipotence  of  the 
infinite  divisibility  of  matter,  and  the  medical  virtues  thereof, 
to  be  carried  on  the  trumpet-blast  of  common  fame,  that 
"always  most  impudently  lies,"  within  the  sphere  of  imagin- 
ative women  and  sickly-souled  men. 

Wonderful  Germany !  thou  art  turning  the  heads  of  the 
human  race  with  thy  deep-musing  professors  !  "  For  strange 
is  it,  nay,  not  without  some  touches  of  awfulness,  to  reflect 
on  what  is  every  day  achieved  in  those  dim  chambers  in  high 
attics  of  learned  Jena,  Heidelberg,  (Meissen,)  and  the 
rest,  by  those  skin-dried  anatomies  who  inhabit  the  same,  to 
outward  appearance  not  without  some  vague  resemblance 
to  humanity,  especially  such  of  them  as  occasionally  shave, 
but,  in  fact,  not  being  men  at  all,  except  in  their  faint  out- 
line and  similitude,  but  actually  intellectual  or  full-brained 
spiders,  weaving  ingenious  webs,  intricate,  almost  invisible 
in  their  separate  lines,  but  forming  altogether  a  reticulated 
mesh- work,  (say  rather  cloud-grating,)  through  which  but 
dim  and  indistinct  glimpses  can  be  caught  by  eyes  of  hiero- 
glyphic deciphering  Champollions,  but  darker  than  mid- 
night Erebus  to  the  great  mass  of  mankind." 

A  desperate  sportsman  was  this  Hahnemann.  Like  the 
swallow-fishers  on  the  towers  of  the  Alhambra,  flinging  their 
flies  to  the  wind  for  winged  prey,  he  cast  his  lines  into  the 
vacuities  of  infinitude,  flung  out  his  world-wide  nets  of 
spiritual  cobwebs,  and,  after  divers  hopeless  rakings  of 
the  seas  of  space,  returns  with  his  basket  crowded  with 
shining  prey;  the  world's  riddles  read,  the  sphinx's  story 
told,  mankind  physically  redeemed  by  spiritualized  sugar- 
molecules  under  the  divine  guidance  of  a  newly-invented 
force  of  the  universe  called  "similia  similibus  curanter." 

Hail,  thou  blessed  wing-power  of  the  imagination,  creating 
epics  and  idyls,  dreams  and  fables,  long  hast  thou  troubled 
the  waters  of  theologies  and  histories,  philosophies  and 


^SCULAPIUS.  501 

literatures ;  thou  hast  now  at  last  gotten  thy  tail  into  the 
mush-pots  of  science,  and  henceforward  the  bread  of  the 
understanding  must  be  eaten  with  the  "  cud  of  sweet  and 
bitter  fancies,"  while  the  spectacles  of  demonstration  must 
be  taken  from  the  learned  nose,  and  their  place  supplied 
by  thine  infernal  kaleidoscope  !  With  all  deference  and  love 
for  the  order  of  poetical  minds,  "  misled  by  fancy's  meteor 
ray,"  whom  this  seductive  system  has  warped  from  the  nor- 
mality and  light  of  reason,  and  seduced  by  the  rainbow-tints 
of  its  "sailing  foam-bells,"  or  swallowed  by  the  inarticulate 
and  hazy  infinitude  of  its  suggestiveness,  an  enlightened  criti- 
cism brings  the  fatal  verdict :  "  thou  hast  been  weighed  in 
the  scales,  and  found  wanting."  Lacking  the  positive  in 
science,  wandering  in  the  wilderness  of  distractions  belong- 
ing to  the  metaphysical  or  transition  period,  or  phases  of 
development  of  the  human  mind,  and  lacking  every  single 
element  of  the  fatal  and  absolute,  constituting  true  science 
with  eternally  fixed  and  definitive  laws ;  lacking  the  one 
thing  needful  for  the  life  of  a  theory,  or  system,  thou  lackest 
all  things,  and  hast  failed.  The  Ajax  of  this  hallucination,  a 
poet  by  the  ordinance  of  Nature,  and  true  son  of  the  morn- 
ing, winged  and  heaven-aspiring,  but  sadly  cut  loose  from  the 
moorings  of  sound  sense  and  the  ballast  of  logical  reason- 
ing, has  the  following  set  of  oracular  utterances :  "  I  sup- 
pose it  impossible  to  overrate  the  consequences  of  Hahne- 
mann's  life.  Even  the  negative  results  are  vast  for  our  future 
well-being.  I  think  of  medicines  now  as  curative  personali- 
ties who  take  upon  them  to  battle  in  us  with  our  ills.  He 
made  the  true  experiment  of  doing  relatively  nothing  in 
medicine,  and  found  it  abundantly  successful  and  humane. 
Purgatives  were  one  nasty  superstition  which  he  banished. 
Bleeding  was  another  of  these  vampires,"  etc.*  A  man  and 
a  system  who  make  the  awfully-daring  and  significant  ex- 

*  "Negatives  tend  to  annihilation;  affirmations  are  precious; 
negative  results  might  be  affirmative  consequences,  and  medicines, 
as  curative  personalities,  might  have  a  good  time  battling  in  the 
bowels  of  a  man  ;  but  '  ex  nihil  nihil  fit.'  " — ROBERT  SMITH. 


502  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

periment  of  "doing  nothing"  in  medicine,  and  discover  it  to 
be  abundantly  successful  and  humane,  are,  of  course,  both 
divine,  and,  although  the  results  are  "negative,"  yet  is  it  "im- 
possible to  overestimate  the  consequences  of  such  a  life." 
Hahnemann  being  the  great  zero  in  medical  philosophy,  plus 
and  minus  must  necessarily  spring  from  his  bosom.  The 
historic  muse  of  science  must  chuckle  vastly  over  this  nut 
for  the  sages  to  crack,  and  be  rejoiced  to  find  this  only  ab- 
solutely pure  spiritual  intelligence  of  the  ages,  through 
whom  God's  ray  shines  without  smut  or  varnish,  at  last 
saddling  himself  upon  the  meek  and  assinine  formula,  the 
mournful  skeleton  of  a  theory  of  an  infinite  fountain  of 
all  diseases,  a  ghastly  "  mother  of  dead  dogs,"  incarnated 
in  three  diabolical  forms :  syphilis,  sycosis,  and  psora, 
which  last,  being  vernacularized,  means  common  itch,  or 
Scotch  fiddle.  Unspeakably  grand  is  this  explanation  and 
solution  of  the  whole  multifarious  world  of  diseases>  at 
the  same  time  simple  and  sublime.  This  old-fashioned, 
dirty,  school-boy  itch,  is  the  great  sin-fountain  of  seven- 
eighths  of  all  the  diseases  of  man.  Let  us  thank  God 
it  was  not  the  first  of  his  eternal,  all-embracing  crotchets 
that  was  selected  as  the  last,  and  that  each  innocent  tooth- 
ache pang,  or  harmless  scab,  must  necessarily  come  from 

that  infamous  French  . .      Beneficent  itch,   all  hail !   a 

good  mother  art  thou,  and  Pandora's  box  held  thee  almost 
alone.  And  here  the  sinner,  fallen  in  soul  and  broken  in 
body,  is  left  with  a  gleam  of  hope  and  consolation  inspir- 
ing and  unexpected.  This  itch,  being  the  veritable  origin 
of  evil,  perhaps  the  ancient  devil  himself,  has  a  magical 
specific,  a  "  similia  similibus  curantur,"  and  hell  is  left  full  of 
comfort  and  glory,  for  there  disease  cannot  enter,  as  it  is 
destroyed  in  the  egg  by  a  divine  specific,  brimstone. 

Shade  of  Aureolus  Philip  Theophrastus  Bombast  de  Ho- 
henheim  Paracelsus,  with  thine  immortal  "  two  hundred  and 
fourteen  secrets,"  rise  !  What  now  of  the  infinite  Archimedes' 
lever  of  all  the  world  of  diseases,  the  powder  of  the  boar's 
tusk  taken  in  the  act  of ,  the  irresistible  virtue 


JESCULAPIUS.  503 

of  "pigeon's"  and  "virgin's"  milk,  of  the  perfectly  infallible 
"  calcined  hen's  feather's,"  which  will  "  mundify,  mollify,  cica- 
trize, and  incarnate  any  ulcer  whatsomever  ?"  What  of  all  the 
divine  revelations  concerning  the  Eose-Solis  and  the  "herb- 
Robert"  ?  Like  "baseless  fabrics"  swept  into  the  dust  of  the 
past,  the  splendor  of  thine  escutcheon  is  tarnished  by  thine 
illustrious  followers,  Crollius  and  Hahnemann,  the  sage  of 
Meissen.  The  vis-medicatrix  having  made  up  her  mind  that 
her  golden  key  is  "  similia  similibus,"  henceforward  there  is 
to  be  no  more  "  swilling  down  of  whole  beakers  full  of  gross 
and  filthy  drinks,"  her  favorite  formula  being,  "  the  conditions 
on  which  the  remedy  which  produced  the  disease  in  the 
healthy  body,  already  sick,  are  the  following :  first,  the  sick 
person  must  adhere  to  the  most  rigid  diet,  so  that  the  effect 
of  harmful  food  may  not  disturb  that  of  the  medicine ; 
second,  the  medicine  itself  must  be  entirely  simple,  or 
mixed  only  with  perfectly  indifferent  substances,  such  as 
water,  sugar  of  milk,  etc.  ;  third,  the  medicine  must  be 
taken  in  the  smallest,  infinitesimally-microscopic  portions, 
because  the  operation,  in  virtue  of  its  quality,  increases  in 
the  same  proportion  that  its  mass  diminishes  in  quantity. 
This  is  all  the  magic  of  homeopathy  expressed  in  a  few 
words.  There  is  nothing  unintelligible,  nothing  unseemly, 
nothing  mysterious,  nothing  extraordinary," — Simply,  O 
profound  and  erudite  sage,  because  its  nett  result  is  simply 
zero,  is  simply  nothing!  Nothing  from  nothing  and  nothing 
remains.  Go  on  registering  the  eternal  chapter  of  "post 
hoes,"  and  pass  them  for  sun-clear  ltpropter  hoes,"  and  no- 
thing is  extraordinary,  nothing  is  impossible.  And  here  it 
is  refreshing  to  reflect,  that  this  party  of  ethereals  have 
bored  no  new  artesian-wells,  have  struck  no  new  leads  of 
gold,  undreamed  of  in  the  philosophies.  Crollius  holds  tlfe 
absurd  idea  that  those  remedies  that  externally  resemble  the 
symptoms  of  disease,  in  color,  form,  and  smell,  are  the 
safest:  saffron  for  jaundice,  quaking  asp  for  ague,  and  tea  of 
the  skin  of  a  toad's  back  for  small-pox.  But,  ridiculous  as 
this  is,  it  is  but  a  short  step  from  this  theory  to  homeopathy. 


504  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

"External  resemblance"  would  only  have  to  be  new-christened 
"  internal. "  "  But  it  is  remarkable  that  his  physiognomical 
remedies  are  often,  in  fact,  really  homeopathic,  where  ex- 
ternal resemblance  actually  accompanies  an  internal  one." 
Thus  mutters  a  homeopathic  oracle.  Thus  it  is  that  the 
new  is  ever  old;  the  old  ever  new.  Hence  everybody  un- 
derstands the  matter,  and  is  struck  by  its  simplicity  and 
probability ;  and  hence  everybody  is  a  philosopher  and  doc- 
tor, and  knows  as  much,  or  more  than  everybody  else,  whe- 
ther philosopher  or  doctor.  Progress,  thou  insane  crab  of 
a  world  1  (head  or  tail  foremost)  where  men  with  entrails 
(slimy  tubes  thirty  or  forty  feet  long)  and  solid  viscera, 
(livers  three  and  a  half  pounds  normal,  to  twenty  abnormal,) 
with  bodies  hundreds  of  weight  avoirdupois,  do  nothing, 
think  of  nothing,  believe  in  nothing,  trust  in  nothing,  get 
sick  on  nothing,  and,  "similia  similibus  curantur,"  take  no- 
thing, and  get  well  on  nothing. 

In  the  Chaldean  oracles  of  Zoroaster  we  find  the  follow- 
ing sublime  saws.  The  unlettered  may  find  obscurity  and 
smoke  in  these  flashes  of  the  primitive  soul,  but  to  the 
initiated  they  are  as  the  splendor  of  the  noonday  sun. 

ORACLE  75. 

"  Irrational  demons  derive  their  subsistence  from  the  aerial  rulers ; 
wherefore,  the  oracle  says,  being  the  charioteer  of  the  aerial,  ter- 
restrial, and  aquatic  dogs." 

ORACLE  76. 

"The  aquatic,  when  applied  to  the  divine  natures,  signifies  a 
government  inseparable  from  water,  and  hence  the  oracle  calls  the 
aquatic  gods  water- walkers." 

ORACLE  80. 
"The  paternal  mind  has  sowed  symbols  in  the  souls." 

ORACLE  93. 
"  Moisture  is  a  symbol  of  life,  hence  Plato  and  the  gods  before 


AESCULAPIUS,  505 

Plato  call  it  (the  soul)  at  one  time  <he  liquid  of  the  whole  of  vivica- 
tion,  and  at  another  time  a  certain  fountain  of  it." 

ORACLE  103. 

"  The  fontal  nymphs,  and  all  the  aquatic  spirits,  and  the  terres- 
trial, aerial,  and  glittering  recesses  are  the  lunar  riders  and  rulers 
of  all  matter,  of  the  celestial,  the  starry,  and  that  which  lies  in  the 
abysses." 

ORACLE  117. 

"  He  makes  the  whole  world  of  fire,  and  water,  and  earth,  and  all 
nourishing  ether." 

ORACLE  118. 

"  Placing  earth  in  the  middle,  but  water  in  the  cavities  of  the 
earth,  and  air  above  these." 

ORACLE  94. 
"0  man,  of  a  daring  nature,  thou  subtile  production!" 

With  awe,  like  unto  the  ravishment  which  once  seized 
upon  the  trembling  priest,  when  voices  from  the  depths  of 
the  inscrutable  revealed  the  mysteries  of  eternity,  and  the 
as  yet  unborn  future  threw  its  shadow  before,  let  us  ac- 
cept these  oracles  of  the  inspired  ancients.  Somewhat  in- 
articulate, somewhat  of  the  vastness  of  the  unspeakable, 
looms  out  through  the  shady,  evanescent,  and  transcendental 
imagery  of  the  Oriental  seer ;  but  still  the  eye  of  faith  can 
discover  the  infallible  finger  of  prophecy  in  the  hazy  diffuse- 
ness  of  its  cloudy  terminology,  and  feel  assured  that  the 
inevitable,  with  unerring  precision,  has  here  cast  its  shadows 
on  the  dial  of  time.  It  was  clearly  the  triumphs  of  the 
new  gospel  of  salvation  by  water  alone,  the  symbols  of 
which  the  paternal  mind  had  sown  in  the  soul  of  Zoroaster, 
touching  "the  prophet's  hallowed  lips  with  fire,"  that  were 
thus  vouchsafed  by  revelation  in  love  and  mercy  to  the  sons 
of  men.  From  the  region  of  shades  and  mysticisms  comes 
also  this  portentous  humbug  of  the  times,  the  cure  of  all 
diseases  by  water  alone,  this  thing  called  Hydropathy. 
The  modern  author  of  this  revelation  is  one  Priessnitz,  a 
peasant,  who,  being  a  seventh  son  of  a  seventh  son,  and 

43 


506  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

born  on  Christmas  night,  was  thus,  by  an  eternal  edict,  or 
law  of  foreordination,  made  the  recipient  of  that  rarely-con- 
descended compliment  of  the  supernals,  creative  genius. 
Entirely  innocent  of  the  crime  of  any  species  of  knowledge, 
having  never  tasted  of  the  apples  of  any  forbidden  trees,  and 
consequently  left  to  wander  in  unprofaned  paradises,  on  "the 
high  hills  and  sunny  lawns  where  men  and  angels  meet,"  his 
sacred  mission  was  to  reveal  the  unspeakable  virtue  and 
amazing  power  of  cold  water.  Gods  of  waters  there  had  been 
in  the  old  mythologies — Neptune  and  Triton — and  goddesses 
of  brooks  and  rivers — Nymphs  and  Naiades — but  the  secrets 
of  hidden  springs  and  rivers  were  still  kept,  and  the  gods 
and  naiads  maintained  an  unbroken  quiet.  At  last  the  old 
silences  brooding  over  the  faces  of  the  waters  were  broken, 
and  the  new  evangel,  the  glad  tidings  of  great  joy,  the 
doctrine  of  physical  regeneration  for  man  through  cold  water 
alone,  was  proclaimed,  and  the  German  peasant  stood,  the 
wonder  of  the  hour.  Just  what  the  primordial  idea  of 
the  water-cure  was,  deep  down  in  the  soul  of  Priessnitz  ;* 
just  what  he  finally  announced  as  the  scientific  basis  of  his 
system  of  medication,  and  gave  as  the  rock  of  safety, 
around  which  should  be  left  the  floating  chaos  of  destroyed 
medical  theories,  or  the  Ararat  upon  which  obsolete  Noah's- 
arks  of  systems  must  finally  repose,  being  wholly  surrounded 
by  water,  the  sages  have  yet  to  declare,  the  happy  initiated 
have  yet  to  reveal.  Taking  certain  doctrines  of  anatomy, 
physiology,  and  pathology  to  be  true,  namely,  that  the  human 
creature  is  an  amphibious  animal,  a  magnificent  frog  or 
lizard,  a  water-biped  without  feathers  or  scales,  and  neces- 
sarily aquatic  from  his  organization,  requiring,  like  ducks  and 
sponges,  zoophytes  and  fishes,  the  constant  application  of 
water  to  live  at  all ;  that  all  diseases  are  simply  an  extensive 
variety  of  dirts,  bodily  pollutions,  stickings  and  stuffings-up  of 
tissues  and  organs ;  that  man,  being  an  absolute  water- walker, 
all  you  have  to  do,  is  to  pass  him  through  a  sufficiently  di- 
versified series  of  washings  and  soakings,  dashes  and  splashes, 

*  See  note,  page  535. 


^SCULAPIUS.  507 

flomixings  and  pourings  of  the  all-healing  specific  water, 
and  finally,  like  the  miracle  of  soap  and  water  upon  soiled 
linen,  he  should  be  clean,  and  consequently  well,  starched  up 
by  the  "stimulation  of  cold  water."  Shade  of  Zoroaster,  be- 
hold the  splendid  world  that  has  sprung  from  the  power  of 
the  aquatic  gods,  or  water-walkers !  Thine  oracle,  with  a 
divinely-directed  instinct  of  the  spirit,  has  thus  prophesied 
that  final  consummation  so  long  and  ardently  prayed  for, 
even  the  achievements  of  the  "Maine  Liquor  Law"  and 
Hydropathy,  "with  a  government  inseparable  from  water." 
And  here  exclusiveness  is  impertinence  again,  and  the 
assumption  of  an  absolute  originality  on  the  part  of  Priess- 
nitz  is  an  affectation  of  the  most  egregious  intensity. 
The  value  and  importance  of  water  has  been  self-evident 
since  its  creation.  The  glory  of  water  has  always  been 
known  and  appreciated  by  all  men,  and  its  real  signifi- 
cance was  long  since  revealed  to  them  by  the  science  which 
discovered  that  their  bodies  were  made  principally  out  of 
water;  that  four-fifths  of  the  world  were  covered  with 
water ;  that  without  this  element  of  Nature  all  animals  and 
plants  must  perish  from  off  the  earth's  surface ;  that  water 
was  infinitely  beautiful,  the  symbol  of  spirit,  and  of  Deity ; 
that  without  it,  the  poet  could  not  make  a  song,  the  painter 
could  not  make  a  landscape,  and  God  could  not  make  a 
world.  But  it  has  been  reserved  for  these  modern  days  to 
make  out  the  sublime  demonstration,  that  all  disease  and  hu- 
man infirmity  were  to  be  specifically  cured  and  readjusted  by 
water,  especially  dropsy,  diabetes,  and  the  reduction  of 
important  inflammations ;  in  short,  that  all  the  virtues  of 
all  medical  agents,  and  all  curative  processes,  reside  in 
simple  water.  This  quiet  putting  aside  of  the  science 
of  the  times,  this  slapping  the  mouths  of  the  anatomists, 
physiologists,  and  pathologists,  in  their  supposed  discovered 
laws  of  the  body  in  the  present  habitat  of  man,  is  a  con- 
temptible insult  to  some  of  the  best  heads  that  have  visited 
this  planet,  and  argues  great  thickness  of  skin,  and  a  ver- 
dancy not  expected  in  the  author  of  a  system  pretending  to 


508  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

be  an  emanation  from  the  human  mind  indorsed  by  human 
reason.  However,  being  a  German  peasant,  acknowledged 
by  all  to  be  profoundly  ignorant  of  everything,  error  or  in- 
apprehension  as  to  what  the  world  had  been  doing,  or 
dreaming,  and  trying  to  do,  for  six  thousand  years,  in  the 
shape  of  sciences  and  literatures,  was  to  be  expected. 

But  is  it  expected  that  the  New  World  will  indorse  this 
hallucination  of  an  ignorant  serf  ?  Undoubtedly  cleanliness 
is  akin  to  godliness ;  the  virtue  of  washing  is  infinite,  and 
there  is  no  end  to  the  glory  of  water;  but  that  hydropathy  is 
an  "  art  and  science  among  established  things,"  was  reserved 
for  the  poet  of  the  "isms"  to  sing  or  say.  The  North 
American  continent  takes  up  the  rusty  hoaxes  of  the  Old 
"World,  makes  them  run  the  gauntlet  of  Yankeedom  new 
varnished  and  patched  up  in  decayed  and  gone  parts,  never, 
however,  touching  them  until  exploded  in  the  country  where 
they  rose,  and  "  courteously  declining  to  take  up  a  German 
theory  until  the  Germans  had  ^quite  done  with  it  and  thrown 
it  away  for  something  new."  The  hopeful  and  aspirant 
have  thus  been  disappointed  continually.  When  the  genius 
of  history  recorded  the  discovery  of  a  new  hemisphere,  and 
hailed  with  joy  the  new-born  giant's  smile,  the  heart  of 
man  was  glad  with  hopes  for  the  dawn  of  light  upon  some 
undiscovered  continents  of  the  soul,  commensurate  in  their 
boundless  exuberance  and  exhaustless  profusion,  with  those 
which  Nature  had  provided  as  the  theatre  of  untried  colossal 
physical  experiments  and  expansions  of  the  races.  With 
rnournfulness  and  despair,  behold  the  result !  In  their 
migration,  with  superstitious  veneration,  they  carried  the 
ashes  of  the  dead  with  them,  and  with  sedulous  fear  im- 
ported the  mouldy  skeleton-forms  of  departed  polities,  reli- 
gions, literatures,  and  philosophies,  and  when  men  of  prayer 
and  hope,  men  of  progressive  instincts  and  faith  in  the 
onward  growth  and  beneficent  advancement  of  all  things, 
looked  to  find  that  the  old  and  effete  skins  had  been  sloughed 
off  by  a  new  expansion,  and  cast  aside,  the  narrow  and 
stony  shells  cracked  and  burst  asunder  by  a  new  growth, 


JESCULAPIUS.  509 

lo  !  "men  and  beasts  and  worms  crawled  on  the  same."  The 
swarm  of  lilipntians  and  dwarfs  donned  the  dusty  rags  of  the 
dead,  and  the  New  World,  rich  in  the  splendors  of  a  virgin 
bride,  full  of  unspeakable  promises  for  the  future,  appeared 
under  the  incubus  of  a  fossil  church  and  state,  a  fossil  litera- 
ture and  philosophy,  imported  in  decrepitude  and  decay  from 
the  Old.  For  what  can  be  wiser  and  safer  than  the  laws  of 
England,  deeper  and  more  universal  in  its  formulae  than  the 
philosophy  of  Germany,  or  more  exhaustive  of  the  depths 
of  the  infinite  than  the  visions  and  dreams  of  Judea  ?  "The 
new  must  have  its  radicals  in  the  old."  Certainly,  erudite 
savant ;  but  demonstrate  the  problem  :  if  the  old  be  good 
wheat,  whence,  in  the  devil's  name,  come  these  infamous 
crops  of  cheat  ?  Do  you  believe  in  univocal,  or  equivocal 
generation  ? 

The  glimpse  just  taken  at  the  Priessnitzian  formula,  or 
water-cure,  brings  us  into  the  presence  of  another  imported 
delusion,  long  since  exploded  in  the  land  of  its  birth,  dead, 
buried,  and  almost  forgotten  there,  that  has  found  a  fat 
and  nourishing  asylum,  a  soil  of  strength  and  richness, 
in  this  land  of  new  inventions.  Mesmer,  of  Suabia,  col- 
lected a  multitude  of  the  eccentric  and  anomalous  mani- 
festations of  the  life  of  the  nervous  system,  recording  all 
obscure  and  mooted  facts,  all  morbid  and  inexplicable 
phenomena  under  the  name,  style,  and  title,  of  the  "  Science 
of  Animal  Magnetism."  This  hallucination  has  given  birth 
to  whole  races  of  monsters  in  the  New  World,  a  family  of 
hydras  which  has  grown  more  heads  a  thousandfold  than 
the  fabled  monster. 

In  the  first  moment  of  contemplation  this  is  incomprehen- 
sible and  overwhelming.  But  we  need  not  be  surprised  with 
anything  from  the  country  that  has  the  honor  of  giving 
birth  to  Miller,  the  man  milliner  of  ascension  robes ;  to 
Jo  Smith,  the  true  evangelical  representative-man,  the  au- 
thoritative exponent  of  the  spirituality  of  the  New  World, 
say  the  veritable  Mohammed  of  the  North  American  con- 
tinent, whom  it  has  murdered,  and  consequently  glorified; 

43* 


510  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

not  forgetting  the  quondam  world-renowned  Connecticut 
Count  Cagliostro,  the  illustrious  arch-quack,  of  quacks  of 
the  western  hemisphere,  and  grand  Mogul  of  humbugs,  the 
famous  Nimrod  of  mooncalves,  and  whom  the  North  Ameri- 
can continent  has  not  murdered,  as  he  does  not  belong  to 
the  order  of  radical  blasphemers,  sinning  unpardonably 
against  its  popular  faiths,  but  is  rather,  in  his  own  per- 
son, a  sort  of  monkey  deity  astraddle  of  his  woolly  horse,  a 
veritable  representative  spirit  of  the  mermaid  order  from  the 
realm  of  twaddledom,  a  kind  of  "  Grand  Lama"  of  Yankee 
Buddhism,  or  rather,  perhaps,  a  satanic  scene-shifter  in  the 
contemptible  theatricalities  of  a  rotten  mammon-worshiping 
world.  A  soil  that  could  give  birth  and  grow  such  a  crea- 
ture as  the  once  illustrious  proprietor  of  the  "  Ivy  Island," 
elevate  him  to  the  dignity  of  a  niche  in  the  temple  of 
heroes,  installing  him  in  a  golden  house  of  Nero,  and  give 
twenty-five  thousand  dollars  (whisper  low !)  for  the  most 
flagrant,  nauseous  and  diabolical  confession  of  sin,  made 
off  the  scaffold  of  a  common  malefactor,  on  record :  the  fini- 
kin, cynical,  and  would-be  smart  expose  and  dissection  of  a 
tissue  of  cunningly-devised  fables,  by  which  thousands  of 
hard-earned  dollars  were  extracted  from  the  human  race  by 
a  brutal  invasion  and  assassination  of  the  best  element  of 
man,  the  disposition  to  believe,  or  faith,  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  a  series  of  tricks  and  juggleries  of  a  common 
showman, — a  soil  which  can  grow  such  a  man  will  grow  all 
the  humbugs  of  perdition.  In  this  rich  mould  the  genius 
of  Mesmer  soon  struck  root  and  flourished,  and  conse- 
quently the  world  has  been  shown  the  spectacle  of  a  crop 
of  Jonah's  gourd  follies  and  delusions  springing  from 
the  mire  of  that  dismal  swamp,  human  gullibility.  Trans- 
cended and  cast  aside  in  his  native  land,  this  obsolete  pro- 
genitor of  innumerable  absurdities  has  sown  a  crop  of  bold 
and  noxious  weeds,  "  an  enemy  of  man  who,  while  he  slept, 
came  and  sowed  tares  among  the  wheat,"  that  have  grown 
into  a  harvest  of  wretched  deceits,  which,  fortunately  how- 
ever for  humanity,  die  of  their  own  inanition,  and  still,  from 


AESCULAPIUS.  511 

their  dust,  come  the  weeds  of  hallucinations  and  quack- 
eries, until  the  earth  groans,  and  is  wearied  with  her 
myriad  births  of  monsters.  To  the  vague  and  diffuse 
mumblements  of  clairvoyance,  with  its  profane  babbling  of 
spirits,  and  direct  unvailing  of  the  mysteries  of  the  "abysses 
where  God's  eternal  secrets  lie,"  must  succeed  the  order  of 
the  "  darlings  of  Providence,  fond  Fate's  elect,"  in  the  shape 
of  especially-inspired  healing  media,  whose  precious  privi- 
lege it  is  permitted  to  be,  to  wash  their  subjects  in  the 
"Pools  of  Siloam,"  to  galvanize  the  dead  as  the  corpse  of 
Lazarus  was  raised,  to  heal  the  cold  and  stiffened  tenements 
of  the  grave  as  the  daughter  of  Jairus  was  healed.  In 
their  own  cant,  "  their  practice  is  similar  to  that  which  was 
prevalent  in  the  days  of  miracles."  This  is  the  last  achieve- 
ment of  folly,  this  is  the  catastrophe  of  sin  made  perfect. 
The  readers  of  the  "  Spiritual  Telegraph"  behold  each  day, 
as  if  in  positive  earnest,  without  a  wrinkle  of  mockery  and 
derision,  the  following  advertisement  of  a  "  Healing  Me- 
dium :"  "Behold,  the  sick  are  healed  !  Mrs. ,  of , 

Psychical  Physican  and  Medium,  would  respectfully  offer 
her  services — assisted  by  her  husband — to  the  diseased,  par- 
ticularly those  with  cancerous  afflictions,  and  such  diseases 
generally  as  have  baffled  the  skill  of  the  'faculty.'  Exami- 
nations of  persons  at  a  distance  will  be  promptly  attended 
to  on  the  receipt  of  five  dollars  and  a  lock  of  hair  or  other 
relic,  with  name  and  the  residence  of  the  patient.  Rooms, 

.     Address ."     It  is  well  not  to  omit  the  magical 

"  Y  "  in  calling  on  these  ethereal  doctors.  Wonder  of  won- 
ders I  in  these  days  of  porcelain  teeth  and  East  India  hair 
dyes,  incomparable  lustres  and  gossamer  wigs,  that  by  a  lock 

of  hair  or  some  "relic,"  say  an  artificial  tooth,  sent  to , 

the  spirits  will  soon  hocus-pocus  out  what  part  of  the  bowel  is 
obstructed  and  the  genus  and  species  of  cancer  afflicting  the 
sufferer,  and  abolish  them  both  j  the  distance  off  of  the  sick 
man  presenting  no  difficulty  to  spiritual  influence,  —  for 
where  cannot  spirits  go  ?  what  cannot  spirits  know  ?  why 
shall  not  spirits  pick  all  God's  locks  as  easily  one  way  as  an- 


512  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

other,  and  from  a  ''lock  of  hair  or  relic,"  divine  every- 
body's ills  a  thousand  miles  away.  A  common  ghost  still 
in  the  mud,  in  the  shape  of  an  old-fashioned  terrestrial  doc- 
tor, smelling  loudly  of  assafoetida  and  ether,  with  pill-box  and 
scarificator  in  his  pocket,  makes  himself  extremely  disgusting 
by  actually  looking  into  his  patients'  mouths,  at  their  tongues, 
and  feeling  pulses,  occasionally  (say  it  softly  for  ears  refined) 
putting  his  hand  on  the  sinner's  bowels  to  know  his  ailments, 
not  forgetting  a  few  exploratory  squints  at  the  contents 

of .     This  race  of  leeches  is  becoming  effete,  frosty,  and 

fogy,  too  slow  for  Yankee  go-it-while-your-young-ness,  with 
its  "  two-seventeen"  horses,  locomotives,  and  telegraph  wires. 
Now,  a  Healing  Medium — what  a  beautiful  and  euphonious 
name! — (which,  being  rendered  into  English  in  common 
use,  means  a  windy  gasconader  of  the  genus  quack)  per- 
petrates, under  this  name  and  title,  the  infamous  impiety 
of  attempting  to  don  the  God-mantle  of  Jesus  the  Christ, 
and  transact  miracles  as  he  would  the  every-day  business  of 
vending  cheese  or  patent  medicines.  A  letter  containing 
five  dollars,  it  seems,  is  the  golden  key,  or  irresistible 
fiat  for  the  issuing  of  the  saving  force  required,  of  course 
using  no  medicines  in  any  case  whatever,  but  "relying 
on  the  remedies  used  in  the  days  of  miracles,"  "guided 
by  a  secret  though  invisible  intelligence."  The  radiant  re- 
cipient of  celestial  influxes  gets  himself,  particularly  herself, 
as  the  sex  of  the  vessel  is  a  subject  of  indifference  to  spirits, 
(the  feminine  gender  being  generally  preferred  however,) 
into  a  state  of  supernatural  ecstasy,  a  celestial  furor  or 
trance,  cuts  short  his  acquaintance  with  the  body,  and  its 
five  old  donkey  senses,  floats  off  upon  angelic  wings  into 
heaven,  stirs  up  the  whole  Shanghai  roost  of  spirits,  pro- 
duces his  "lock  of  hair  or  relic,"  demands  a  cure  for  the 
troubled  mortal  who  has  been  coloring  his  hair  with  East 
India  dye,  (who  has  honestly  sent  the  five  dollars  with  a  lock 
of  it,)  asks  a  flash  of  lightning  to  amputate  the  cancerous 
mass,  in  a  dream,  without  suffering  to  the  patient,  or  to 
open  his  bowels  without  glyster-pipe  or  castor  oil,  simply 


^SCULAPIUS.  513 

by  the  good  old  practice  which  prevailed  "in  the  days  of 
miracles." 

Speak  of  the  days  of  miracles,  will  you  !  it  is  a  mark  of 
true  wisdom  to  discover,  in  the  commonplace,  the  miracu- 
lous. The  spiritual  medium  simply  becomes  a  vessel  or  tub 
recipient  of  the  higher  influx,  the  secrets  of  eternity  are  laid 
bare  by  the  tousel  of  hair,  the  disease  destroyed  by  an  "in- 
visible intelligence,"  and  the  faculty  is  requested  to  take  a 
back  seat,  being  essentially  floored.  No  spirits  about,  no 
ghosts  these  days,  pshaw  !  everybody  is  a  spirit,  everybody 
is  a  ghost ;  "ere  thy  watch  tick,  a  million  pop  up  from  the 
dark  ;  ere  thy  watch  tick  again,  a  million  bob  down  into  the 
dark."  And  here  the  reflecting  mind,  the  soul  of  sympathy 
and  meditation,  is  brought  to  a  dead  halt,  a  bolt-upright 
stand  in  the  presence  of  a  world  of  ghastly  suggestions, 
partaking  of  the  nature  of  hair-starting  or  true  terror  horri- 
pilations, the  trouble  which  spirits  in  the  clay  always  have 
with  spirits  out  of  the  clay,  that  ghosts  in  one  sphere  have 
with  ghosts  in  another  sphere.  Once  we  thought  that  the 
grave  surely  had  rest  for  us  all,  and  when  the  "mortal  coil 
was  shuffled  off,"  that  the  Silences  and  the  Infinite  claimed 
us  by  right  eternal. 

"Peace  waits  us  on  the  shores  of  Acheron: 
There  no  forced  banquet  claims  the  sated  guest, 
But  silence  spreads  the  couch  of  ever- welcome  rest. 
Yet  if,  as  holiest  men  have  deemed,  there  be 
A  land  of  souls  beyond  that  sable  shore, 
To  shame  the  doctrine  of  the  Sadducee 
And  sophist  madly  vain  of  dubious  lore ; 
How  sweet  it  were  in  concert  to  adore 
With  those  who  made  our  mortal  labors  light ! 
To  hear  each  voice  we  feared  to  hear  no  more ! 
Behold  each  mighty  shade  revealed  to  sight, 
The  Bactrian,  Samian  sage,  and  all  who  taught  the  right!" 

So  muttered  the  dreaming  bard ;  alas,  but  dreaming  !  Peace 
no  longer  waits  us  on  the  shores  of  Acheron,  and  silence 
no  longer  spreads  for  us  a  couch  of  rest ;  sweet,  no  doubt, 
it  would  be  "in  concert  to  adore,"  "with  those  who  made 


514  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

our  mortal  labors  light;"  but  these  infernal  rappers,  he  and 
she  media,  have  other  work  than  the  sweets  of  adoration  on 
hand  for  us  ;  for  saint  or  sinner,  whether  in  heaven  or  hell, 
whether  drinking  of  the  "  rills  that  sparkle  in  the  bowers  of 
bliss,"  or  gulping  with  sorrow  the  flames  of  "that  fire  the 
angels  shudder  but  to  name,"  are  both  alike  subject  to 
the  wills  and  caprices  of  souls  still  in  the  bitterness  and 
bonds  of  the  clay,  and  may  be  summoned,  as  lackeys 
in  a  theatre,  to  the  most  ignoble  services,  galloping  up 
stairs  with  tables  on  their  backs,  passing  through  the  hu- 
man intestine  to  count  its  ulcers  and  warts,  or  conjure 
out  by  the  legerdemain  known  only  to  spirits,  from  a  lock 
of  dyed  hair,  the  philosophy  and  cure  of  cancer  and  "  dis- 
eases in  general  that  have  baffled  the  skill  of  the  faculty." 
No  longer  are  we  to  hold  ourselves  in  readiness,  with  "best 
bib  and  tucker,"  for  awful  judgment  days,  or  settlement  of 
doomsday  books,  or  sleep  till  the  second  coming;  no  longer 
is  the  "  horn  of  Monker,  waking  up  the  dead,"  required  ;  but 
Tom  Johnson  and  Sallie  Jones  pile  their  hands  upon  a  table, 
and  lo  !  rap,  wake  snakes,  the  grave  is  opened,  the  gates  of 
heaven  fly  back  with  a  golden  sound,  while  those  of  Pande- 
monium "grate  harsh  thunder ;"  the  dead  walk,  the  shades  of 
Plato  and  Zoroaster,  of  Hahnemann  and  Paracelsus,  are  sum- 
moned to  the  bar  to  testify  in  cases  pending :  Conniption 
Fits  vs.  Jemima  Flint ;  Stone  in  the  Bladder  vs.  John 
Smith ;  Worm  in  the  Liver  vs.  Hobensach ;  or  Ghost  of 
Woolly  Horse  vs.  Barnum.  Vast  are  the  abysses  through 
which  the  soul  blunders  in  the  darkness  of  this  sorrowful 
delirium.  And  here  a  spirit  whispers  a  suggestion :  these 
rappers,  by  invading  the  sanctity  of  the  grave  and  calling 
the  spirits  of  the  departed  back  from  that  "  sable  shore"  to 
perform  the  functions  of  leech  and  lancet,  ignore  the  wisdom 
of  one  grand  man  of  inspiration  who  has  appeared  on  the 
planet  since  the  days  of  cloven  tongues — Emanuel  Sweden- 
borg.  In  the  "Angelic  Wisdom"  concerning  Divine  Provi- 
dence (114)  it  is  recorded  "that  evils  in  the  external  man 
cannot  be  removed  by  the  Lord  except  by  means  of  man." 


^ISCULAPIUS.  515 

Diseases  of  all  orders  not  being  material,  (cancer  pumpkins, 
hypertrophied  livers  large  as  a  mule's  head  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding,)  but  spiritual  and  dynamic  existences,  it 
appears  among  the  things  seen  and  heard  in  the  seventh 
heaven,  as  revelations  of  supernatural  wisdom,  that  the  only 
means  even  the  Lord  himself  has  to  remove  the  evils  of  the 
external  man,  is  the  instrumentality  of  man  himself.  Pro- 
gressive, and  slightly  ahead  of  the  Lord,  then,  ye  wise,  ye 
learned,  "like  superstitious  thieves  YOU  think  the  light  of 
DEAD  MEN'S  marrow  guides  YOU  best  at  night."  If  it  is  true 
that  the  Lord  cannot  remove  the  evils  of  man  except  by 
means  of  man,  then  why  would  ye  summon  the  souls  of  the 
dead,  why  trouble  the  departed  who  sleep  well  after  "  life's 
fitful  fever,"  to  return  and  vex  themselves  again  with  the  in- 
firmities of  those  frail  and  weary  weeds,  the  bodies  of  other 
men  ?  Surely  they  had  trouble  enough  with  their  own  colic 
spasms,  toothaches,  itches,  scald-heads,  and  diarrhoeas  during 
their  stay  upon  earth,  and  should  not  to  all  eternity  be  open 
to  intrusion  upon  the  sweet  rest  of  the  grave,  and  dragged,  it 
may  be,  from  heaven  and  the  raptures  of  singing  the  119th 
Psalm,  long  meter,  to  rectify  the  intestinal  obstructions  of 
brutal  sinners,  still  imprisoned  in  bodies  stuffed  with  mackerel 
and  whisky.  This  seems  an  offense  to  the  sentiment  and 
law  of  justice  which  pervades  the  universe.  That  a  soul, 
after  being  tortured  through  the  hell  of  the  finite  with 
a  cancerous  stomach,  should  be  liable  to  be  summoned  from 
the  everlasting  silences  to  dose  through  all  eternity  can- 
cerous stomachs,  is  a  revelation  of  the  infinite  torments  of 
perdition,  compared  with  which,  the  bigot's  common  hell 
would  be  heaven,  and  the  old-fashioned  brimstone  lake  as 
sweet  as  a  bed  of  roses.  Oh,  lugubrious  rappers  !  let  them 
sleep ;  ye  are  investing  the  grave  and  eternity  with  horrors 
yet  undreamed  of  in  the  armory  of  God's  eternal  wrath. 

In  remote  spaces  of  hopeless  inanity  and  stupidity  there 
loom  still  others  of  the  flock  of  ill-starred  birds  of  prey, 
or  quackeries  of  the  times.  Many  of  them  are  so  phan- 
tasmal, shadowy,  and  unreal,  so  clearly  fictions  of  the 


516  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

dream-world,  such  plainly-marked  satanic  stratagems,  that 
the  common  sense  of  the  race  cannot  tolerate  even  a 
hearing  with  court  and  jury,  but  dismisses  them  at  once 
to  the  shades.  When  the  two  startling  and  peculiar 
names,  "  Kinesipathy"  and  "Hypnotism,"  arise  before  us 
and  ask  our  consideration  as  modes  of  curing  disease, 
what  shall  we  say  ?  There  is  magic  in  a  name,  certainly, 
and  magic  has  been  a  powerful  force  in  the  world  in  days 
gone  by,  why  not  now  ?  Ling,  the  author  of  the  "  Swedish 
Medical  Gymnastics,"  was  a  poet  who  failed  to  take  cold  after 
exposing  himself,  half  naked,  on  a  frosty  day,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  committing  suicide ;  and,  rapping  himself  with  a  ruler 
on  a  rheumatic  part,  discovered  that  it  relieved  the  pain,  and 
thus  was  revealed  to  him  a  new  system  of  medical  sug- 
gestions which  he  called  Kinesipathy, — a  name,  beyond  a 
doubt,  which  means  the  curative  virtues  of  rubbing,  snub- 
bing, nudging,  and  kneading,  scratching  and  pounding, 
(which,  of  course,  includes  the  art  of  pugilism,  which  has 
always  been  known  to  be  .good  for  weak  eyes,)  the  philoso- 
phy of  shampooing  and  poking,  dancing  and  wriggling, 
jerking,  squirming,  and  fumbling.  Two  thousand  sublime 
movements,  of  all  orders  imaginable,  cure  the  whole  cata- 
logue of  chronic  diseases,  constituting  a  system  of  organic 
sanitary  exercises  or  drillings.  It  has  been  practiced  in 
Sweden  for  more  than  thirty  years.  The  time  it  seems  for 
Yankeedom  to  take  it  up,  revamp,  and  trot  it  out,  has  now 
arrived.*  We  propose  the  health  of  the  Swedish  poet  Ling? 
with  all  the  honors. 

Hypnotism  was  discovered  by  James  Braid,  of  Manchester. 
The  oracular  bard  of  the  sciences  calls  it  "  one  of  a  number  of 
arts  to  which  we  shall  give  the  generic  name  of  Phrenopathy, 
for  it  produces  its  effects  principally  as  actions  of  mind  upon 
mind."  "  The  heart's  wounds  are  immedicable,  and  canst  thou 
minister  to  a  mind  diseased."  Hypnotism  pours  physical  sal- 
vation into  the  animal  man  through  his  soul.  This  is  done  by 

*  There  are  practitioners  of  this  system  at  several  places  in  the 
United  States. 


^ISCULAPIUS.  517 

intense  contemplation,  by  excessive  abstraction,  holding  the 
intellect  in  thumb-screws,  a  cast-steel  rivet  through  the  cen- 
tre of  the  mind ;  a  kind  of  "  double  internal  squint"  being 
the  most  potential  direction  of  the  eyes  for  the  purpose. 
"Abstraction  tends  to  become  more  and  more  abstract,  nar- 
rower and  narrower ;  it  tends  to  unity,  and  afterward  to 
nullity."  Sound  !  Of  course  to  nullity.  All  films  are  thus 
cast  aside  from  organs  and  tissues ;  exaltation  in  impressi- 
bility is. the  achievement;  "the  body  trembles  like  down 
with  the  wafts  of  the  atmosphere ;  the  world  plays  upon 
it  as  upon  a  spiritual  instrument  finely  attuned;"  ("Harp 
of  a  thousand  strings  and  sperets  of  just  men,"  including 
the  "voice  of  the  turtle;")  angels  of  mercy  descend,  touch 
the  raw  and  agonized  surfaces  with  balmy  kisses  of  healing ; 
and  the  patient,  in  the  sanitary  embraces  of  a  hypnotic  trance, 
is  redeemed  from  the  horrors  of  disease,  and  is  carried  bliss- 
fully back  to  the  harmonious  circulation  of  health  and  life. 
This  idea  is  supposed  to  be  a  full  forty-second  cousin  of  that 
highly  respectable  phantom  of  the  human  brain,  called  Ani- 
mal Magnetism. 

Beside  these  fanciful  and  suggestive  systems  of  medica- 
tion which  seem  to  bring  in  arcs  of  the  circle,  and  serve  to 
complete  the  whole  sphere  of  the  possible  in  this  realm  of 
imaginative  and  ideal  healing,  there  are  others  scarcely 
worthy  of  notice,  while  some  are  positively  filthy,  noxious, 
and  insane,  mere  beggarly  insults  to  the  good  sense  of  hu- 
manity ;  for,  to  speak  or  allude  to  Uroscopy  or  Thompsonian- 
ism  in  the  presence  of  decent  persons,  is  to  be  vulgar  and 
ridiculous.  Add  to  this  list  the  "grape  cure,"  the  "goats- 
whey  cure,"  the  "hunger  cure,"  the  "beer  cure,"  the  "rest 
cure,"  and  there  would  seem  to  be  no  end  to  the  cures  or 
systems  of  healing  in  this  department  of  strategies  and  wiles, 
of  humbugs  and  horrors.  Still  is  it  wonderful  how  the 
swarms  of  delusions  acknowledge  the  same  venerable  author 
of  lies  for  their  illustrious  sire,  and  have  even  a  similarity  of 
detail,  a  family  resemblance  most  obvious  ;  the  end  proposed 
by  ALL  their  efforts  being  to  humbug  and  swindle  the  world. 

44 


518  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

In  these  latter  times  we  have  heard  much  of  commercial 
feudalisms  and  merchant  princes,  an  order  of  men  who,  by 
handling  commodities  alone,  creating  no  particle  of  value  in 
the  world,  but  simply  by  huxtering  and  swapping  garlic  and 
soap-fat,  have  come  to  handle  the  helms  of  financial  worlds, 
and,  like  the  steeds  of  the  ancient  barbarians,  become  in- 
stalled in  the  palaces  of  jbhe  Caesars.  But  it  has  been  re- 
served as  the  peculiar  glory  of  the  North  American  conti- 
nent to  breed  a  new  race  of  saurians  of  the  commercial 
deeps,  a  new  order  of  colossal  lizards  and  flying  dragons, 
whose  food  is  human  flesh,  and  whose  coprolites  in  a  thou- 
sand years  will  show  only  the  presence  of  human  bones. 

This  calls  to  the  bar  a  host  of  parasites  that  infest  the 
medical  profession  in  the  shape  of  vendors  of  patent  medi- 
cines. 

Of  course,  "Hobensach"  is  infallible  and  sound,  for 
everybody  takes  his  vermifuge,  whether  wormy  or  not. 
Retire,  "  Hobensach  1"  one  worm  you  forgot  in  your  cata- 
logue of  murdered  victims — maggot  in  the  head.  It  was 
well,  however,  to  let  him  flourish  as  grand  generator  of 
crotchets,  else  how  otherwise  could  it  come  about  that 
everybody  would  take  "  Hobensach  ?" 

Swaim  has  retired  to  the  shades.  Rappers  notify  him 
that  he  left  the  earth  too  soon,  that  the  sublime  panacea  of 
scrofula  and  cancer  has  found  a  place  in  a  sphere  of  uses 
undreamed  of  by  its  illustrious  discoverer.* 

And  then  there  have  been  dukes  of  sarsaparilla,  and 
almost  *****.  Shades  of  Webster  and  Clay  ! 
creators  of  nostrums,  vendors  *****  grabbing 
for  the  mantles  you  so  sadly  and  hurriedly  dropped.  O 
tempora,  O  mores  J  *****  anything  for  the  vain- 
glorious flash  of  the  hour.  Feejee  Island  cannibals  on  the 
thrones  of  the  world  not  half  so  anomalous,  not  half  so 
lost. 

*  See  Robert  Smith's  story  of  Aunt  Katy's  sweetening  her  cakes 
with  Swaim's  panacea.  AUNT  KATY — It  was  a  panacea,  else  how 
could  it  help  the  old  man's  cough,  and  make  the  best  cakes  in  the 
world  ? 


.ESCULAPIUS.  519 

A  stranger,  walking  the  streets  of  American  cities,  and 
elevating  his  eyes  in  view  of  certain  august  granite  and  mar- 
ble masses,  might  suppose  he  had  gotten  into  the  presence 
of  palaces  of  proud  old  monarchs,  huge  men,  kings  by  con- 
sent of  the  earth. 

By  what  magical  incantation,  by  the  music  of  what  Or- 
pheus have  the  iron  and  marble,  the  sandstone  and  granite 
danced  to  these  cities,  and  arranged  themselves  in  such 
artistic  piles  ?  The  guardian  angels  of  humanity  must 
weep  over  these  monuments  of  sin,  these  sublime  Choctaw 
wigwams,  made  hideous  to  the  spirit's  eye  by  the  scalps  of 
murdered  gullibles.  It  is  certainly  the  age  of  a  new  order 
of  miracles.  Those  imperial  towers — what  mountains  of  con- 
gealed human  sweat  1  what  tallyboards  of  years  of  human 
agony  !  the  sad  inheritance  of  the  fall  and  fearful  curse  of  a 
wrathful  Deity,  in  an  expiatory  struggle  of  twelve  dismal 
hours  of  work,  represented  by  the  dollar !  Touch  those  mar- 
ble and  granite  blocks,  they  bleed  and  shriek  like  the  trees  in 
"  Dante's  Hell,"  alive  with  the  torments  of  suffering  souls,  and 
this  calamity  from  those  cunningly-devised  institutions  of  the 
devil,  quack  nostrums,  the  meanest  and  most  murderous 
mode  of  assassination  of  the  fraternal  instincts  of  humanity, 
abhorrent  to  men  and  angels  both.  Unhappy  creators  of 
shams  and  Yankee  vulturizations,  gas,  puff,  sell  the  waters 
of  the  rivers  of  the  earth,  diluted  with  simples,  constituting 
a  series  of  infamous  hoaxes,  and  insult  humanity  by  building 
from  their  revenue  palaces  to  the  stars.  Say  to  the  human 
race,  with  the  Veiled  Prophet  of  Khorassan  :  "  Yes,  ye  vile 
race,  for  heWs  amusement  given,  too  mean  for  earth,  yet 
claiming  kin  with  heaven ;  is  it  enough,  or  must  we,  while 
a  thrill  lives  in  your  sapient  bosoms,  cheat  you  still  ?" 

There  is  in  heathen  mythology  a  goddess,  of  revenge, 
whose  special  function  it  is  to  see  that  retribution,  swift 
and  sure,  shall  seize  delinquent  sinners.  Unhappy  fabri- 
cators of  nostrums,  she  is  after  you  all  even  now,  with 
her  sharpest  stick.  The  granite  and  marble,  the  iron  and 
sandstone  are  but  dust;  they  must  crumble  and  vanish 


520  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

under  the  teeth  of  Time.  Until  which  consummation  shall 
arrive,  let  those  feudal  towers  stand,  like  infernal  gallows, 
from  which  hang  the  bones  of  malefactors  that  rattle  in 
the  winds  of  the  ages,  more  loathsome  to  heaven  than 
that  spectacle  of  horror  of  "  the  shaggy  demon  of  the  wil- 
derness," the  Tartar  Khan's  pyramid  of  ten  thousand  human 
skulls. 

Inspecting  this  dismal  catalogue  of  nostrum-makers  who 
are  a  poisonous  mixture  of  quack  and  felon,  and  wander- 
ing through  the  disastrous  dance  of  this  chaos  of  medical 
systems  and  theories  of  healing,  what  is  the  wretched  vic- 
tim of  the  maladies  of  the  body,  who  seeks  relief  for  his 
sufferings  from  the  interference  and  assistance  of  the  skill 
of  man,  to  believe  ?  especially  what  is  he  TO  DO  ?  Is 
this  array  of  doctors  all  a  mournful  army  of  Sangrados,  a 
party  of  "knights  of  the  rueful  countenance,"  on  fantas- 
tic errands,  and  victims  of  Quixotic  hallucinations;  mournful 
ravens  croaking  delusive  make-believes  over  the  sick  man's 
couch  ?  Is  poor,  sick,  and  sorrow-stricken  humanity  thus 
ever  to  be  deluded  and  made  the  sport  of  a  mocking  and 
wicked  fate,  wretchedly  victimized  by  a  villainous  order 
of  infatuations  and  deceits  terminating  only  in  the  despair 
and  torments  of  death  ?  Is  the  proverbial  uncertainty  of 
all  medicine  an  inevitable  conclusion  from  a  critical  survey  of 
the  different  fields  of  its  operations,  and  the  analysis  of  its 
scriptures,  canonical  and  uncanonical  ?  A  synopsis  of  even 
the  most  fantastic  "ism,"  with  a  nett  result  of  man's  endea- 
vors in  this  sphere,  would  be  a  desirable  achievement.  What 
can  the  common  sense  of  the  hour  fix  as  the  absolute  result, 
the  clean,  scientific  sediment  from  the  boiling  pots  of  each 
of  these  portentous  systems,  prominent  in  the  day  in  which 
we  live  ?  First  of  the  fashionable  quackery  of  the  German 
mystic  Hahnemann,  what  do  we  know  as  real  substance  ? 
what  as  most  absolute  shadow  ? 

The  doctrine  of  "  similia  similibus  curantur"  puts  in  re- 
quisition the  protective  and  conservative  sanitary  instinct 
of  the  organism  called  "  vis  medicatrix  naturae,"  the  essential 


^ISCULAPIUS.  521 

curative  efforts  of  tissues  and  organs ;  and  by  diluting  into 
annihilation   and  nothingness   its  famous  similia,  it  leaves 
said  healing  plus-forces  to  battle  unobstructed  with  the  ills  of 
the  organization.    Falling  back  into  a  "masterly  inactivity," 
the  absurd  ultimatum  of  the  expectant  method,  the  sublime 
of  the  system  of  "laissez-faire,"  or  let  alone,  it  hands  the 
patient  into  the  motherly  care  of  Nature.    In  short,  it  in- 
culcates the  wholesome,  though  not  very  pleasant  doctrine 
to  the  sinner,  that  Nature  is  really  a  forgiving  and  kind  mo- 
ther, but  that  she  requires  penitence  and  perfect  virtue,  to 
restore   him   to   health,   and  that  diet,   temperance,  self- 
denial,  and  nothing  (except  faith)  are  terrible  agencies  in 
curing  disease,  and  have  a  power  almost  infinite  over  the 
body  and  the  soul  to  save  them  both ;  that  in  the  reliance 
of  homeopathy  upon  its  inconceivable  abstractions  beyond 
the  reach  of  reason,  or  mathematics  in  its  efforts  to  meta- 
morphose matter  into  spirit  by  infinite  dilutions,  tritura- 
tions,  and  mechanical  comminutions,  it  may  thus  become 
a  spiritual   and   dynamic   agent   among  diseases  which  it 
asserts  are  spiritual   and  dynamic   entities  which  must  be 
vanquished  by  powers  of   the   same    order;    and   withal, 
constantly  producing  an  array  of  alleged  "post  hoes"  which 
it  can  in  no  conceivable  manner  demonstrate  to  be  "  propter 
hoes,"  but  which  can  be  clearly  shown  to  be  the  result 
of  the  action  of  known  laws  of  organic  life,  it  is  clear  that 
it  trusts   veritably  and   absolutely  to  nothing.     The   sys- 
tem has  value  as  a  rebuke  and  pronuncimento  against  the 
arrogance  and  self-sufficiency  of  the  Old  School,  with  its  un- 
faltering faith  in  drugs,  and  has  real  significance  as  a  criti- 
cism upon  the  regular  routine  art,  with  its  fossilizing  pharma- 
copoeias, its  elaborate  prescriptions,  peck-measure  pill-boxes, 
and  enormous  dosing  of  nauseous  medicines.     It  has  also 
value  as  a  demonstration  of  the  influence  of  mind  over 
matter,  imagination  over  the  body,  or  man  upon  man  spir- 
itually.    By  singing  its  song  of  incomprehensible  abstrac- 
tions, and  reiterating  its  earnest  promises  of  healing,  the 
patient  is  flung  into  the  arms  of  an  all-cherishing  Nature, 

44* 


522  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

and,  in  the  slumber-draught  of  her  charmed  goblet,  with  the 
angels  of  faith  and  hope  watching  over  it,  it  must  come 
that  the  body  will  be  deserted  by  its  ills,  they  being  finally 
expelled  by  the  conservative  life-forces  which  originally  build 
it  up  with  miraculous  architecture  out  of  the  wheat  field 
and  the  orchard.  Dream  on,  sorrowful  dreamer,  there  may 
be  healing  in  your  dreams.  Believe  in  your  brother  man 
even  if  he  does  delude  you  with  a  song,  for,  according  to 
an  ancient  formula,  there  is  salvation  in  faith  alone.  There 
is  one  other  aspect  in  which  homeopathy,  unfortunately  for 
itself,  is  valuable  to  the  world  and  the  profession,  namely,  as 
an  indorsement  of  the  Old  School  of  medicine  itself.  Whole- 
sale drugging  has  long  since  been  abandoned  by  sensible 
men  ;  but  the  rational,  judicious,  and  intelligent  administra- 
tion of  medicine  is  an  art  indorsed  by  science. 

These  homeopathic  worthies  have  discovered  no  new 
drugs  or  elements  of  materia  medica,  but,  by  an  astonishing 
coincidence,  have  adopted  the  old  substances  in  toto,  only 
using  them  microscopically,  and  after  the  new  law  of  like 
curing  like,  at  the  same  time  retaining  their  faith  in  the 
accredited  dragon  forces  of  the  world;  and,  unless  those 
scoundrels  the  druggists  slander  them  foully,  they  still,  not- 
withstanding their  twaddle  about  infinitesimals,  drive  the 
venerable  stage  horses  in  the  same  style  that  the  regular 
profession  have  been  in  the  habit  of  driving  them. 

Secondly,  that  Hydropathy,  maugre  its  impertinence  and 
affectation  in  calling  itself  a  medical  system,  particularly 
cure,  and  especially  new  system,  has  done  one  thing  for  the 
good  of  humanity,  namely,  assisted  somewhat  in  the  exalta- 
tion of  water  to  the  position  of  one  of  the  most  beneficent 
gifts  of  the  supernals.  Cleanliness  being  really  a  species  of 
holiness,  water,  an  element  high  in  the  catalogue  of  the 
good  things  of  the  Lord,  may,  in  divers  applications  to  dirty, 
jaded,  and  gone  bodies,  to  burnt-out  crucibles  and  fire-eaten 
bread-baskets  of  stomachs,  accompanied  with  brandy-boiled 
brains,  and  nerves  corroded  with  intensity  of  galvanic  action, 
in  short,  that  have  grown  diseased,  and  are  paying  the  pen- 
alties of  sin  in  a  medium  of  sensuality  and  luxury  in  dif- 


J3SCULAPIUS.  523 

ferent  shapes  of  such  derangements,  remove  obstructions 
of  the  emunctories,  and  wash  out  or  deterge  the  abomina- 
tions of  the  body,  especially  if,  as  is  always  the  case,  the 
water  be  "  accompanied  with  absolute  diet,  and  exercise  in 
the  open  air  with  uncovered  head."  They  call  it  Hydropathy, 
and  take,  with  the  good  sense  of  the  world  in  all  ages  and  in 
all  systems,  such  aphorisms  as  this :  An  essential  law  of  life 
is  activity ;  without  exercise  or  some  shape  of  motion  no 
animal  can  be  healthful  or  live  ;  things  are  so  constituted, 
and  not  otherwise;  and  that  cleanliness  and  diet  are  powerful 
helps  to  nature  in  every  shape  of  disease  or  morbid  condi- 
tion of  the  bodies  of  men  or  animals. 

Let  us  honor  Priessnitz  with  the  honor  due  unto  him,  as 
the  great  apostle  of  cold  water,  in  an  age  whose  history 
will  be  redolent  of  whisky  for  a  thousand  years,  and  among 
a  people  whom  it  has  become  necessary  to  muzzle  with 
the  strong  arm  of  the  common  law,  and  whose  lips  it  has 
been  deemed  advisable  to  close  with  padlocks,  only  giving 
the  keys  to  courts  and  juries. 

Thirdly,  look  for  a  moment  at  the  sediment  of  the  rappers. 
In  the  far  East,  the  region  of  the  cradle  of  the  races,  and,  of 
course,  the  fountain  of  light  and  knowledge  to  all  the  world, 
the  Oriental  spiritualists  or  doctors,  whose  interpretation  of 
disease  is,  that  each  one  is  a  bad  spirit  or  devil,  rap  on  hollow 
trees  and  drums,  blow  with  horns,  and  roar  with  gongs,  to 
frighten  them  away.  This  is  the  whole  medical  treatment. 
The  spirit  rappers,  by  giving  no  medicine,  "being  guided  by 
a  secret  though  invisible  intelligence,"  may  also,  by  calling 
in  the  ghosts  of  the  dead,  alarm  the  ravens  of  disease  and 
resuscitate  the  sick  and  dying  by  fear  or  faith. 

Send  a  lock  of  your  hair  to  Mrs.  ,  and  suddenly  be 

made  whole,  thou  colicky  sinner! 

It  is  written,  "man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone."  Being 
half  an  angel,  he  must  have  some  pabulum  for  his  soul ; 
being  half  spirit,  he  must,  to  be  sound,  have  some  food  from 
heaven ;  why  shall  not  the  spirit  medium,  practicing  with 
trans-grave  ideas  and  remedies,  say,  man  shall  not  die  by 


524  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

medicine  alone  ?  As  they  give  "no  medicines  in  any  case 
whatever,"  but  rely  solely  upon  Nature's  remedies,  neither 
attempting  to  advance  or  arrest  the  procession  of  things,  by 
the  way  the  safest  position  to  take  for  final  judgments  ist 
surely  to  leave  the  sick  man  to  get  along  alone,  to  live  or 
die  by  "Nature's  remedies." 

The  schools  stand  vis-a-vis  on  the  question  of  death,  as 
on  the  question  of  life.* 

Mrs.  B has  lost  her  only  daughter,  and  is  broken- 
hearted, f  ***** 

To  conclude  this  currente  calamo  splash  on  the  subject 
of  some  of  the  most  prominent  of  the  satanic  strategies,  wiles, 
and  charlatanries  assuming  the  prerogatives  and  powers  of 
the  regular  profession  of  medicine  which  are  now  at  work 
hoaxing  the  world,  it  might  be  true,  that  spring  fever,  gout, 
calculous  concretions  of  the  joints,  pathological  obesity  or 
morbid  fatness,  dyspepsia,  blue  devils,  and  common  mulli- 
grubs, and  all  diseases  connected  with  incorrigible  laziness 
and  soggy  immobility,  with  indiscriminate  stuffing  of  cavi- 
ties, would  be  essentially  benefited  by  the  "Lingian  formulas" 
of  medical  gymnastics.  Of  course,  many  things  might  be 
done  by  two  thousand  movements,  by  the  therapeutic  virtue 
of  kicking  and  cuffing,  nudging  and  snubbing,  etc.,  espe- 
cially by  the  drill  of  the  muscles  of  arms  and  legs  in  some 
useful  operation  in  the  creation  of  value,  as  in  the  highly- 
curative  gymnastic  movement  of  ploughing  the  earth,  or 
splitting  wood  ;  that  good  may  come  of  this  medicine  of  the 
muscles,  "from  the  muscles  of  medicine,"  there  is  not  the 
least  doubt ;  also,  that  hypnotism  may  cure  hypochondria- 
cism  and  vaporism,  and  that  hocus-pocus  may  medicate  suc- 
cessfully "  conniption  fits"  and  the  whole  range  of  diseases 
which  may  be  classified  under  the  genus  of  "  lackadaisical 
fancies."  "The  unit  of  hypnotism  is  intense  attention,  ab- 

*  See  Robert  Smith's  story  of  the  death  of  Mrs.  T.'s  son  for  want 
of  the  twenty-fifth  bleeding  in  bilious  fever. 

f  See  Smith's  story  of  the  death  of  her  daughter  in  the  natural 
way,  or  without  the  assistance  of  any  kind  of  doctor  at  all. 


2ESCULAPIUS.  525 

straction,  the  personal  ego  pushed  to  nonentity.  The  unit 
of  Mesmerism  is  the  common  state  of  the  patient,  caught  as 
he  stands,  and  subjected  to  the  radiant  ideas  of  another  per- 
son :  it  is  mediate ;  or  both  personal  and  impersonal.  Neither 
sleep  nor  hypnotism  can  exist  in  the  presence  of  a  second  per- 
son, without  partaking  more  or  less  of  Mesmerism.  The  sleep 
brain  is  fluid,  the  hypnotic  brain  movable-pointed,  and  the 
Mesmeric  brain  elastic.  Sleep  =influx ;  hypnotism  =  efflux ; 
Mesmerism = afflux."*  This  is  as  crystalline  as  mud,  and  must 
be  clear  even  to  the  uninitiated  and  unlettered ;  transparent 
and  glorious  as  the  splendors  of  an  October  morning,  the 
"ideas  sticking  out  like  asses'  ears."  Consummation;  "the 
virtue  of  hypnotism,  where  it  succeeds,  is  just  this,  that  for 
the  moment,  it  unweeds  the  human  soil  so  completely,  that 
whatever  faith  is  impressed,  can  work  and  grow." 

Some  faiths  will  grow  in  almost  any  soil,  weeded  or  un- 
weeded,  and  work  too ;  but  most  faiths  grow  best  where 
there  are  most  weeds.  But  wherever  it  does  grow,  it  is  a 
good  thing,  and  may  cure.  Thus,  hypnotism,  by  pushing 
the  personal  ego  to  nonentity,  may  work  and  grow,  and  thus 
cure  and  save  by  faith. 

What  is  the  scientific  solution  of  the  phenomena  of  ap- 
parent curing  by  nostrums,  quacks,  and  delusions  in  general  ? 

Various  forms  of  revelation  of  the  optimism  or  overflow- 
ing goodness  of  Nature  have  been  made  to  divers  inspired 
souls ;  and  to  all  men  in  whom  perception  is  at  all  awake  it 
must  be  apparent,  that  a  good  principle,  a  conquering  energy 
of  benevolence  and  love,  a  constantly-acting  recuperative 
power  predominates  in  the  order  of  things.  "The  universe 
is  a  system  of  divine  ends,  organizing  and  executing  itself, 
under  the  influence  of  divine  love,  directed  by  divine  wis- 
dom." All  created  beings  dwell  in  the  full  exuberance  of  this 
boundless  nature,  this  overwhelming  goodness,  this  unspeak- 
able beauty,  live,  move,  and  have  their  being  in  the  bosom 
of  an  infinite  intelligence,  held  tenderly  in  the  lap  of  an  in- 
finite love.  Like  little  children,  drawing  life  and  strength 

*  Wilkin 


526  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

from  a  cherishing  mother,  fed  and  clothed  by  invisible  fingers, 
nursed  and  caressed  by  invisible  hands,  we  grow.  The  quack- 
eries of  the  world  "sing  the  song  of  sixpence,"  and  get  "a 
pocket  full  of  rye,"  "betting"  on  the  triumph  of  this  benefi- 
cent power,  this  strong  will  of  nature,  this  plus  fullness,  this 
exuberant  vitality  and  strength,  which  battles  in  us  with  the 
destroying  powers,  quarrels  with,  and  resists  toughly  death 
in  every  shape,  and  says,  even  to  the  body  of  man,  thou 
shalt  live  forever.  As  a  centre  of  all  organic  forms  there 
exists  this  budding  and  expansive  life-force,  which,  by  a 
miraculous  centrifugal  tendency,  seeks  a  full  pronunciation 
somehow,  even  through  difficulties  insuperable,  of  the  proper 
sphere  of  being  of  the  creature,  through  consummation  or 
finishing  of  its  form,  life,  and  power,  as  facts  in  the  divine 
economy  of  uses,  of  which  the  universe  of  matter  is  the  per- 
petually unfallen,  also  glorified  and  transcendent  symbol. 
This  is  the  real  philosophy  of  the  world  of  post  hoes,  which, 
by  satanic  cunningness,  get  themselves  passed  for  propter 
hoes,  assuming  the  relationship,  the  absolute  golden  nexus 
of  cause  and  effect,  instead  of  mere  apparent  antecedent  and 
consequent. 

Nature  walks  her  own  paths,  makes  and  keeps,  works  and 
sleeps.  Assailants  of  all  orders  come  ;  she  says,  nay!  Nos- 
trum and  quack  watch,  like  the  eagle  for  the  fish-hawk, 
pounce,  and  away  with  the  prey ;  antecedent — sugar  glob- 
ules, cold  water,  Swaim's  panacea,  or  Hobensach;  conse- 
quent— normal  poise  of  restoring  powers  and  all  safe ;  hands 
of  death  off;  soundness  is  restored.  Recuperative  sanitary 
ecstasy  of  nature  says,  never  mind  the  nostrum,  the  caba- 
listic sign,  the  nothingness  of  Hobeusach  &  Co.;  I  will 
make  you  well,  notwithstanding  your  scabs  and  scratches, 
your  childish  winnings  and  querulous  complainings,  your 
sufferings  and  distractions ;  disease  is  an  impertinence  and 
intrusion  into  the  charmed  realm  of  life  in  which  I  am 
Queen.  Your  simples  and  water,  your  treacle  and  peppermint, 
do  not  hinder  me  seriously  in  my  work,  which  is  to  grow  a 
new  universe  every  moment,  keeping  the  apples  and  cab- 
bages of  Eden  freshly  on  hand  each  instant  of  time ;  for, 


^SCULAPIUS.  527 

"ever  forth  the  broad  creation,  a  divine  improvisation,  from 
ray  heart  proceeds."  The  heinous  offense  of  the  quack  is, 
that  he  steals ;  does  not  "render  unto  Caesar  the  things  which 
be  Caesar's,  and  unto  God  the  things  which  be  God's,"  but 
would  feloniously  rob  the  altar  of  life  of  its  sacred  fire,  to 
melt  his  gold  and  roast  his  potatoes.  Taking  his  ideas,  (when 
he  has  any,)  his  language,  his  intellectual  conceptions,  of 
which  his  stock  is  meagre  enough,  from  the  regular  scientific 
profession,  he  would  assume  an  originality  and  newness  which 
cannot  appertain  to  shams  and  appearances,  which  are  at 
best  but  beggarly  imitations  of  something  which  has  an 
honest  and  earnest  existence.  He  would  varnish  the  false 
and  accidental,  into  the  appearance  of  the  absolute  and  real. 
Living  and  moving  in  a  world  of  insincerities  and  lies,  he 
howls  of  persecution  and  monopoly,  privileged  orders,  and 
learned  professions,  steals  the  prerogatives  of  all,  and,  bow- 
ing obsequiously,  assumes,  without  shadow  of  right,  the  im- 
munities, privileges,  and  emoluments  pertaining  to  the  same, 
and  thus  is  perpetually  a  felon,  serving  the  devil  with  all  the 
"  liveries  of  heaven"  upon  his  back. 

This  is  the  cardinal  confession  of  sin.  Why  the  quack's 
perpetual  abuse  of  the  regular  profession  ?  Why  this  imi- 
tation ?  Why  this  continued  stretching  to  and  affectation 
of  the  possession  of  the  achievements  of  science  ?  Why 
does  each  fashionable  quack  profess  once  to  have  been  of  the 
regular  profession  and  old  school  ?  Why  this  inward  fealty 
to  an  authority  which  they  outwardly  ignore  ?  The  regular 
profession,  in  reliable  history,  stretches  back  hundreds  of 
years.  Conservative  as  to  what  it  has  found  with  alembic 
and  microscope,  crucible  and  dissecting  knife,  it  questions 
with  intensity  of  earnestness  every  innovation,  and  asks  of 
all  propositions  in  the  art  of  healing,  are  they  true  ?  have 
they  "  quod  erat  demonstrandum"  affixed  to  them  ?  Why 
the  honest  new  or  rational  progressive  should  quarrel 
with  venerable  conservatisms,  and  surely-rooted  truisms,  and 
be  impatient  under  the  asking  of  sound  questions,  is  sur- 
prising. The  honest,  earnest,  and  sensible  new,  has  always 


528  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

appealed  to  the  sympathy  for  weakness  and  infancy,  asking 
consideration  for  the  tender,  fresh-budding,  and  undeveloped; 
while  the  rational  old,  on  the  score  of  generosity  and  dis- 
interestedness, has  been  required  to  apologize  for  its  tyranny 
in  the  consciousness  of  the  superiority  of  force,  in  the  simple 
possession  of  power.  The  quarrel  of  the  regular  profession 
with  quackery  comes  from  a  profound  and  undying  antagon- 
ism. It  is  the  ancient  war  of  truth  and  error,  light  and 
darkness,  knowledge  and  ignorance.  As  regular  exponents 
of  the  powers  of  evil,  the  quackeries  of  the  world  have  ever 
had,  and  will  ever  have  to  meet  the  honest  and  sane  realities 
of  science  in  an  eternal  attitude  of  hostility  and  opposition. 
Books  have  been  written  upon  the  philosophy  of  magic  and 
witchcraft,  the  explanation  of  hallucinations  and  delusions, 
but  we  still  wait  to  see  an  exposition  of  the  diabolical 
essence  of  quackery.  An  historical  delineation  of  the  mo- 
dus operandi  of  the  devil  in  this  his  favorite  department 
of  stratagems  and  tricks,  his  most  authentic  and  material  op- 
position to  the  final  ascendency  of  truth  and  goodness,  and 
the  quick  arrival  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  would  be  a  gift 
of  the  gods  to  humanity. 

Turning  with  sickness  and  sorrow  from  the  nauseous  reci- 
tation of  the  quackeries  of  the  world,  this  dreary  waste  of 
infatuations,  this  "fantastic  chase  of  shadows  after  shades," 
where  is  suffering  humanity  to  look  for  relief  ?  Wounded, 
wearied,  and  riven,  what  is  the  haggard  victim  of  pain  to  do 
to  be  saved  from  despair  and  destruction  ?  Are  all  sys- 
tems of  medication  phantoms  and  follies,  with  nothing  of 
truth  or  light  in  them,  only  disappointment  and  ruin  to  offer 
to  the  deluded  faith  of  mankind  ? 

"  Grand  on  her  pedestal,  as  urn -bearing  statue  of  Hellas," 
stands  the  regular  profession,  the  ark  of  safety,  the  rock  of 
ages,  the  hope  of  the  world.  The  god  of  medicine  was 
represented  as  seated  on  a  throne,  holding  in  one  hand  a 
staff,  and  with  the  other  resting  upon  the  head  of  a  dragon- 
(serpent,)  and  by  his  side  lay  a  dog.  The  interpretation  of 
this  beautiful  fable  surely  the  simplest  man  is  able  to 


.ESCULAPIUS.  529 

make.  The  staff*  is  the  emblem  of  assistance  and  help; 
the  profession  standing  steadfastly  as  a  support  or  prop  to 
tottering  man,  giving  eyes  to  the  blind,  limbs  to  the  lame, 
and  saving  the  weary  foot-sore  traveler  from  fainting  on 
the  journey  of  life.  With  the  other  hand  he  rests  upon  the 
head  of  a  dragon  (serpent.)  This  shadows  forth  with  artistic 
precision  and  beauty  the  triumphs  of  the  art  of  healing. 
This  serpent  is  a  type  of  the  prudence  and  wisdom  which 
control  the  demon  of  disease  and  pain,  fallen  man's  most 
fearful  foe.  The  hand  of  ^Esculapius  rests  upon  its  head, 
thus  typifying  his  godlike  sphere,  even  the  full  and  perfect 
control  of  the  powers  which  so  fatally  environ  man  in  his 
strange  imprisonment  in  the  body,  and  his  struggles  with 
the  elements  of  darkness  and  death. 

Contemplate  the  singular  analogies,  poetic  justice,  and 
propriety  of  the  myth,  in  the  detailed  opotheosis  of  this  di- 
vinity. The  gloomy  god  of  Tartarus  was  dissatisfied  with  the 
labors  of  this  shining  conservator  of  humanity,  fearing  that 
from  his  cures  and  resurrections  hell  was  not  being  filled  fast 
enough,  and  he  must  suffer  the  fate  of  all  the  gods  who  havo 
perished  for  others,  and,  by  a  divine  self-sacrifice,  a  splendid 
murder,  through  the  jealousy  of  the  highest  divinities  of 
Olympus,  and  the  envy  and  hatred  of  the  miserable  superin- 
tendent of  the  infernal  regions,  be  killed  by  a  "  flash  of  light- 
ning and  placed  among  the  stars." 

And  by  his  side  lay  a  dog.  In  the  symbolical  representa- 
tion of  things  among  all  nations,  the  dog  is  the  emblem  of 
fidelity.  Thus  the  deity  who  presides  over  the  well-being 
of  humanity,  true  to  the  law  of  love  and  fidelity,  has  by  his 
side  a  dog.  Let  the  earth  fail,  and  the  perishing  man  be 
hunted  to  the  brink  of  the  grave,  with  all  terrestrial  rela- 
tionships crumbling  to  nothing  about  him,  yet  will  he  find  by 
his  side,  sure  and  steadfast  in  his  hour  of  agony  and  suffering, 
the  Physician,  his  hope  in  life,  his  consolation  in  death. 

Waiving  the  poetries  and  symbolisms,  what  has  the  regu- 

*  Life-preserver. 
45 


530  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

lar  profession  to  offer  to  fulfill  the  dream  of  the  Greek  in  his 
conception  of  the  god  of  medicine  ?  "In  the  thick  darkness 
are  there  gleams  of  a  better  light?"  What  promise  has 
the  profession  made  to  men  that  it  cannot  redeem  ?  What 
hope  has  it  excited  that  it  cannot  realize  ?  What  faith  has  it 
inspired  to  be  met  by  disappointment  ?  What  can  the  pro- 
fession emphatically  do  ?  What  has  it  done  and  rendered 
fixed  and  established  immutably  as  law,  by  principles  of  the 
positive  and  absolute  in  philosophy?  And  here  it  must 
be  said,  that  a  systematic  and  logical  recitation  of  what  it 
has  done,  a  catalogue  of  its  unquestioned  and  demonstrable 
elements,  would  be  a  treatise  on  the  philosophy  of  medical 
science,  a  serious  and  profound  recapitulation  of  which,  to- 
gether with  a  historical  account  of  the  order  of  sequence  of 
development,  with  the  unalterable  laws  of  affinity  or  alliance 
which  chain  them  together  in  nature,  is  a  desideratum  that 
can  in  no  way  be  supplied  by  a  hurried  flash,  or  popular 
story.  An  enumeration  of  a  few  obvious  achievements  of 
the  regular  profession  comes  spontaneously  and  irrepressi- 
bly,  and  must  here  be  made  without  any  effort  at  organic 
plasticity,  or  logical  cohesion. 

The  profession  has  built  a  science  of  Anatomy,  or  a  per- 
fect demonstration  of  the  most  intimate  molecular  struc- 
ture of  the  body  as  a  machine,  subsequently  introducing 
the  mind  to  a  sublime  reading  and  analysis  of  the  great 
series  of  organic  forms;  "for  the  human  form  is  the  gram- 
mar of  every  school  which  gives  real  instructions  to  man- 
kind." It  has  also,  by  a  carefully-conducted  succession  of 
experiments  and  observations  on  the  vital  actions  of  the 
same  machine  under  the  influence  of  powers  within  itself, 
a  series  of  forces  that  seems  to  use  the  body,  with  its 
congeries  of  organs,  as  instruments  of  its  use  and  will, 
cognized  the  laws  of  life  of  the  organs  and  tissues,  or 
created  a  science  of  physiology.  With  patience  and  assi- 
duity in  the  dead-house,  it  has  explored  the  results  of 
disease  in  its  action  on  the  body,  has  critically  appre- 
ciated the  after-death  appearances,  connecting  them  with 


^SSCULAPIUS.  531 

the  antecedent  living  language  of  suffering,  or  the  voice 
of  organs  in  the  process  of  change  and  destruction,  to- 
gether with  the  alteration  incompatible  with  life,  and  con- 
structed the  science  of  pathology,  with  its  sister  science 
semiology,  or  the  philosophy  of  the  natural  language  of 
disease.  By  carefully -conducted  experiments  upon  the 
whole  category  of  created  things,  all  substances  possessing 
properties  which  influence  the  organization,  it  has  dis- 
covered a  class  of  agents,  called  medicines,  with  which  its 
power  is  absolute  over  many  conditions  of  the  body  in  disease, 
or  it  has  produced  the  science  of  materia  medica.  By  a 
never-intermitting  series  of  observations  upon  the  effects  of 
different  substances  upon  the  body  in  all  states  and  con- 
ditions, and  by  the  discovery  of  the  uniform  chemical  ele- 
ments that  give  medical  qualities  to  these  agents,  there 
has  been  constructed  a  demonstrable  science  of  therapeu- 
tics, or  an  account  of  the  modus  operandi  of  medical  sub- 
stances upon  the  body.  By  nicely-conducted  experiments, 
under  the  influence  of  every-day  agents  about  us,  the  power  of 
climate,  or  special  localities,  chemistry  of  diet  and  digestion, 
with  the  influence  of  habits  of  life,  it  has  elaborated  a  sys- 
tem of  perfect  details,  constituting  the  laws  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  health,  or  the  science  of  hygiene  ;  in  short,  from  the 
mere  mechanical  achievement  of  a  surgical  operation,  or  scien- 
tific cutting  of  the  living  body,  directed  by  an  absolute  knowl- 
edge of  every  fibre  of  its  organization,  or  from  the  gross  out- 
ward phenomenon  of  the  transit  of  epsom  salts  or  castor-oil 
through  the  intestine,  to  the  more  hidden  and  recondite  doc- 
trines of  the  antiplastic  and  deobstruent  virtues  of  calomel, 
or  the  alterative  and  metamorphic  properties  of  iodine,  the 
regular  profession  has  catalogued  every  fact  of  importance, 
has  achieved  every  result  of  vital  significance  to  man,  with  re- 
gard to  the  laws  of  his  body,  in  health  and  disease,  and  does 
really  know  what  it  assumes  to  know,  and  has  a  sensible 
account  to  render  of  itself  before  any  tribunal.  With 
solemnity  and  grandeur,  with  dignity  and  earnestness,  with 
serene  wisdom  and  a  perfect  intellectual  superiority,  stand 


532  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

the  rational  principles  of  the  old  school  of  medicine,  in 
savage  rebuke,  in  bitter  contrast  with  the  foolish  systems 
which  assail  them,  and  with  noise  and  clamor  fill  the  ears  of 
a  gullible  world,  insulting  the  science  of  the  moment  with 
the  pretensions  of  a  host  of  infamous  and  preposterous 
empiricisms. 

In  the  light  of  a  benignant  and  blessed  hope,  the  regu- 
lar profession  stands  the  only  rock  of  safety  for  humanity, 
full  of  promises  of  health  and  well-being ;  the  dragon-serpent 
under  the  hand  of  ^Esculapius  being  the  veritable  serpent  of 
brass,  "the  symbol  of  prudence  and  renovation,"  upon  which 
the  disease-stricken  tribes  of  the  earth  have  but  to  look  in 
order  to  be  saved.  Sublime  in  its  exalted  heights,  pure 
and  benevolent,  but  stern  and  solemn  in  the  possession  of  an 
irreproachable  purity  and  strength,  it  looks  with  complacency 
and  pity  upon  the  sweltering  sea  of  foamy  charlatanries  and 
empty  bubbles  that  float  around  it,  feeble  and  impotent. 
The  shining  path  of  its  progress,  from  the  first  dawnings  of 
the  intellect  of  man  to  its  present  exalted  position  as  an  in- 
ductive science,  has  been  rendered  illustrious  by  the  labors 
of  a  lofty  brotherhood  of  the  genius  of  the  race,  an  order 
of  men  in  whom  great  powers  of  thought  were  revealed,  and 
the  enthusiasm  and  sympathy  of  man  for  man  consecrated 
and  embalmed  for  all  time.  The  literature  of  the  profession 
stands  the  indestructible  monument  of  the  best  endeavors  of 
the  most  gifted  souls  of  the  world,  made  aromatic  and  im- 
mortal by  a  spirit  of  love  and  angelic  self-sacrificing  de- 
votedness ;  for,  through  ages,  with  a  quiet,  heavenly  self- 
reliance  in  its  labors  after  the  good  and  the  true,  it  has 
kept  its  eye  on  the  possibly  perfect  and  absolute  while  beset 
by  legions  of  intrusive  follies  at  each  moment  of  its  radiant 
progress. 

Slow  induction,  through  irresistible  growth  and  progressive 
perfection,  has  been  the  law  of  development,  with  occasional 
disposition  to  postponement  and  arrestation  or  fossilization, 
as  in  every  department  of  knowledge  it  would  seem,  by  the 
ultimation  of  some  fatal  law  of  the  mind.  Still  its  march  has 


AESCULAPIUS.  533 

been  onward  by  slow  but  sure  advances.  Essentially  eclec- 
tic, although  respecting  and  holding  to  the  conservatism  of 
the  past  with  wisdom  and  sobriety,  unseduced  by  the  flashy 
radicalisms  of  the  moment  it  has  maturely  estimated  each 
suggestion  of  the  new,  and  read  with  reflection  and  respect 
each  critique  of  the  present,  at  all  its  stages  of  growth,  and 
adopted  whatever  of  truth  or  fresh  revelation  each  original 
phasis  of  the  advancing  waves  of  light  brought  to  the  intellect 
of  man.  Ceaselessly  experimenting,  dissecting  bodies  of  ani- 
mals, bodies  of  men,  reading,  interpreting  the  language  of 
the  organism  in  health  and  disease,  ransacking  nature's 
warehouse,  and  torturing  all  the  elements,  every  created 
form  of  matter,  for  its  secret  power  over  the  body,  to  save 
from  suffering,  to  save  from  death,  the  genius  of  the  art  has 
always  been  characterized  as  one  of  endless  seeking  and 
endeavor  after  the  absolute  of  truth. 

What  is  the  body  of  man,  and  what  are  its  laws  in  health 
and  disease,  and  what  agents  and  powers  control  these  con- 
ditions of  the  same,  has  the  spirit  of  man  demanded  from 
immemorial  time,  with  a  zeal  kindled  upon  the  altar  of  sci- 
ence to  burn  with  freshly-renewed  splendor  until  the  divine 
end  shall  be  achieved  and  disease  appear  on  earth  no  more. 

Where,  then,  shall  suffering  humanity  turn  for  hope  in  this 
gloomy  world  of  disease  ?  Where  shall  the  tortured  body, 
held  in  the  fatal  folds  and  dark  environment  of  the  destroy- 
ing powers,  look  for  relief  from  agony  and  despair,  and  the 
wretched  instincts,  startled  at  the  appearance  of  destruction, 
seek  the  soothing  of  promised  safety  ? — where,  but  to  the 
brotherhood  who  have  struggled  for  thousands  of  years  in 
ceaseless  efforts  to  save?  Earth  has  no  stone,  plant,  or 
animal,  the  air  no  saving  qualities,  the  waters  of  the  earth 
no  healing  virtues,  chemistry  has  no  combination  of  ele- 
ments, and  the  mechanical  forces  of  the  world  no  powers 
which  have  not  been  exhausted  by  the  profession  in  her 
vigilant  search  to  alleviate  the  condition  of  humanity, 
and  save  the  suffering  from  pain  and  dissolution.  "Un- 
der all  these  means,  coworking  for  good,  shall  not  the  body 

45* 


534  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

be  redeemed,  and  evil  begin  to  lose  the  footing  that  sickness 
gives  it  ?  By  heaven's  law  the  sick  have  claims  which  the 
healthy  have  not,  and  there  is  more  joy  over  one  man  cured 
than  over  ninety  and  nine  who  are  sound.  This  is  a  test 
of  every  society,  how  it  speeds,  or  how  it  lags,  in  ad- 
ministering to  the  sick.  They  are  the  weakest  parts  of  our 
common  body,  and  care  and  thought  turn  to  them  with  long- 
ings that  are  the  flesh  of  the  physician's  heart.  And  the 
more  that  are  healed  the  more  concentrated  is  the  love  upon 
those  who  suffer  still ;  so  that  at  length  the  world's  whole 
skill  and  tenderness  shall  surround,  with  arts  and  healing 
tears,  the  bed  of  the  last  sick  man."  "  Then  give  place  to 
the  physician,  for  the  Lord  hath  created  him :  let  him  not 
go  from  thee,  for  thou  hast  need  of  him." 


(NOTE  TO  PAGE  489.) 

For  real  demonstrable  motion  of  considerable  extents  of  rock, 
see  works  on  geology,  as  the  rising  and  subsiding  of  coasts,  the 
appearance  and  disappearance  of  volcanic  islands,  oscillations  of 
earthquakes,  etc.;  also,  for  clearly  ascertained  vibrations  in  natu- 
ral and  artificial  masses  of  rock,  see  "Annual  of  Scientific  Facts" 
for  1859,  on  Conducting  Power  of  Eocks,  Altitude  of  Mountains 
not  Invariable,  by  Charles  Maclaren,  page  310.  It  appears  from 
actual  observation,  that  the  "  entire  mass  of  rock  and  hill  on 
which  the  Armagh  Observatory  is  erected,  is  slightly,  but  to  an 
astronomer  quite  perceptibly,  tilted  or  canted  at  one  season  to  the 
east,  at  another  to  the  west.  This  was  at  first  attributed  to  the  sun's 
radiation,  to  the  hydrostatic  energy  of  water,  and  afterwards  to  con- 
ducting power  of  rocks  from  heated  nucleus  below.  The  hill  upon 
which  the  Armagh  Observatory  is  situated  is  at  the  junction  of  the 
mountain  limestone  and  clay-slate,  one  leg  on  the  former,  the  other 
leg  on  the  latter.  Absorbent  rocks  are  best  conductors,  and  conse- 
quently in  wet  seasons  will  expand  most,  and  tilt  the  hill  to  one 
side,  in  dry  seasons  subside  most,  and  tilt  the  hill  in  the  opposite 
direction."  So  mountains  and  hills  swing,  like  the  pendulum,  in  the 
waves  of  heat  from  above,  of  heat  from  below.  Bunker  Hill  Monu- 
ment, supposed  to  be  a  fixed  fact,  is  as  uncertain  as  any  other 
Yankee  notion,  and  vibrates  in  the  brush  of  the  sun,  as  the  pine- 
tree  rocks  in  the  waves  of  the  wind. 


535 


(SEE  ANTE,  PAGE  506,  AT  *) 

In  the  Hydropathic  Encyclopedia  of  R.  T.  Trail,  we  are  presented 
with  the  following  lucid  statement  of  the  modus  operandi  of  water: — 

"Contrary  to  the  teachings  of  the  standard  medical  books  of  Al- 
lopathy, Homeopathy,  and  the  Eclectic  Schools,  we  must  ever  bear 
in  mind  that  disease  is  never  a  positive  entity,  [tumors  ten  pounds 
avoirdupois,  colic,  cholera,  enlarged  spleen,  lock-jaw,  nonentities  !~\ 
but  always  a  negative  result;  it  is  the  absence  of  health,  [a  stick 
of  timber  present  is  never  a  positive  thing,  but  always  a  nega- 
tive result,  it  is  the  absences?  NO  STICK  of  TIMBER!]  or  of  the  state, 
circumstances,  and  actions  which  constitute  the  balance  of  functional 
duty  we  call  health.  [Causes  of  these  nonentities!]  Abuse  of  hygienic 
agencies  produce  abnormal  causes  of  disease,  bad  air,  improper 
light,  impure  food  and  drink,  excessive  or  defective  alimentation,  in- 
dolence or  over-exertion,  unregulated  passion — in  three  words,  un~ 
physiological  voluntary  habits.  General  indications — remove  obstruc- 
tions, wash  away  impurities,  supply  healthy  nutriment,  regulate 
temperature,  relax  intensive  and  intensify  torpid  action ;  and  what  but 
water,  with  its  concomitants  air,  light,  food,  temperature,  can  answer 
these  indications?" 

How  clear  and  bright,  luminous  and  heavenly,  in  the  mind  of 
Priessnitz,  must  have  shone  the  vision  of  the  power  of  the  infallible 
panacea,  water! 

"Water,  water  everywhere, 
And  all  their  throats  did  shrink ; 
Water,  water  everywhere, 
And  forty  barrels  to  drink." 


nsi 

' 


HYGEIA. 


HYGIEIA  ('/}"/««,)  also  called  Hygea  or  Hygia,  the  goddess  of 
health,  and  a  daughter  of  Asclepius,  (JEsculapius.)  (Paus.  i.  23,  $  5; 
xxxi.,  \  5.)  In  one  of  the  Orphic  hymns  (66-7)  she  is  called  the  wife 
of  Asclepius;  and  Proclus  (ad.  Plat.  Tim.)  makes  her  a  daughter  of 
Eros  and  Peitho.  She  was  usually  worshiped  in  the  same  temples 
with  her  father,  as  at  Argos,  where  the  two  divinities  had  a  cele- 
brated sanctuary  (Paus.  ii.  23,  \  4 ;  iii.  22,  \  9)  at  Athens,  (i.  23,  \  5; 
31,  g  5;)  at  Corinth,  (ii.  4,  g  6;)  at  Gortys,  (viii.  28,  \  1 ;)  at  Sicyon, 
(ii.  11,  \  6 ;)  at  Oropus,  (i.  34,  g  2.)  At  Rome  there  was  a  statue  of 
her  in  the  temple  of  Concordia,  (Plin.  H.  N.,  xxxiv.  19.)  In  works 
of  art,  of  which  a  considerable  number  has  come  down  to  our  time, 
she  was  represented  as  a  virgin  dressed  in  a  long  robe,  with  the  ex- 
pression of  mildness  and  kindness,  and  either  alone  or  grouped  with 
her  father  and  sisters,  and  either  sitting  or  standing,  and  leaning  on 
her  father.  Her  ordinary  attribute  is  a  serpent,  which  she  is  feed- 
ing from  a  cup.  Although  she  is  originally  the  goddess  of  physical 
health,  she  is  sometimes  conceived  as  the  giver  or  protectress  of 
mental  health,  that  is,  she  appears  as  Mens  sana,  or  uytsia  ypsvwv, 
(JSschyl.  Eum.  522,)  and  was  thus  identified  with  Athena,  surnamed 
Hygieia,  (Paus.  i.  23,  \  5  ;  comp.  Lucian,  pro  Laps.,  5  ;  Hirt.  Mythol. 
Bilderb.,  i.  p.  81.) — Greek  and  Roman  Biography  and  Mythology. 

L.  S. 


538 


"  Man  is  a  link  in  nature,  but  his  intellectual  faculties  enable  him 
to  rise  above  her,  to  battle  with  and  acquire  influence  over  her. 

"But  that  nature  affects  mankind  as  a  part  of  herself  in  manifold 
ways  in  material  respects,  rests  on  experience  so  abundant  and  clear, 
and  opinions  so  unanimous,  whether  we  refer  to  single  men  or  to  en- 
tire races,  that  we  need  only  give  a  brief  indication  of  it. 

"The  varied  character  of  nature  in  the  different  regions  of  the 
earth  in  a  great,  measure  determine  the  food,  the  dress,  the  dwellings, 
the  means  of  intercourse,  and  the  diseases  of  the  races." 

SCHOUW, 
Earth,  Plants,  and  Han. 


539 


CHAPTER   II. 


flYGEIA, 

Or  the  father  of  Hygeia,  ^Esculapius,  many  accounts  and 
interpretations  have  been  given  by  classical  writers,  as  we 
have  seen.  Leonard  Schmitz  announces  his  critique  of  the 
fable  thus  : — 

"  His  story  is  undoubtedly  a  combination  of  real  events 
with  the  results  of  thoughts  or  ideas,  which,  as  in  so  many 
instances  in  Greek  mythology,  are,  like  the  former,  con- 
sidered as  facts.  The  kernel,  out  of  which  the  whole  myth 
has  grown,  is  perhaps  the  account  we  read  in  Homer ;  but 
gradually  the  sphere  in  which  JEsculapius  acted  was  so  ex- 
tended, that  lie  became  the  representative  or  the  personi- 
fication of  the  healing  powers  of  nature,  which  are  natu- 
rally enough  described  as  the  son  (the  effects)  of  Helios, 
Apollo,  or  the  Sun."  Epione,  the  wife  of  the  god  of  medi- 
cine, had  a  number  of  children  who  were  highly  gifted  and 
distinguished,  "  most  of  whom  are  only  personifications  of 
the  powers  ascribed  to  their  father,"  and  among  whom  was 
the  radiant  daughter,  "goddess  of  health." 

Here,  then,  appears  Hygeia,  a  "  virgin,  dressed  in  a  long 
robe,  with  the  expression  of  mildness  and  kindness,"  "the 
goddess  of  physical  health,  also  the  giver  or  protectress  of 
mental  health,"  the  "  mens  sana,"  (in  corpore  sano,)  giving 
her  name  fD^'eia  health,)  to  the  "department  of  medical 
science  which  treats  of  the  preservation  of  health."  Being 
the  "mens  sana,"  or  sound  mind,  on  this  subject,  she  must, 
of  course,  preside  over  the  following  fields  of  labor,  or  dif- 
540 


HYGEIA.  541 

ferently-named  fields  of  the  same  labor :  "  The  Art  of  Pro- 
longing Life,"*  "The  Philosophy  of  Living,"f  "The  Laws 
of  Health,"!  "  Life  and  Health,"§  "  Human  Health,  or  Ele- 
ments of  Hygiene,"||  "Elements  of  Health, "f  "Physiology 
Applied  to  Health  and  Education,"**  "Physical  Educa- 
tion," and  the  whole  domain  of  "Human  Physiology,"  etc. 

Grand  in  thy  niche,  great,  kind,  and  brooding  Prophylactic, 
"  What  shall  I  do  to  thee,  0  thou  preserver  of  men  ?"ff 
Surely  not  make  thee  superior  to  thy  father •?  See  the  grace 
and  fitness  of  the  classical  myth  ;  the  mild  maid,  with  flow- 
ing robes,  leans  upon  her  father.  Being  only  a  "  personifica- 
tion" of  one  of  the  "powers"  ascribed  to  him,  is  it  justice  in 
poetry  or  science  to  exalt  her  at  the  sacrifice  of  the  dignity 
and  supremacy  of  her  sire,  the  venerable  god  ? 

Hear  the  sage  Mayo,  from  Boppard  on  the  Rhine,  (1851,) 
more  than  fifty-five  years  after  Hufeland,  of  Jena,  had  pub- 
lished "The  Art  of  Prolonging  Life:"  "In  the  Greek 
medal  which  furnishes  the  device  for  the  title-page,  [of  his 
book  '  Philosophy  of  Living,']  Hygeia  is  represented  with 
emblems  of  greater  efficiency  than  the  healing  god.  Her 
snake  is  three  times  as  big  as  that  of  JGsculapius,  and  could 
evidently  eat  half-a-dozen  such  at  a  meal.  Besides,  she 
handles  it  with  familiar  dexterity,  while  the  god's  is  care- 
lessly twined  round  his  life-preserver.  Even  so,  in  the  ad- 
vance of  knowledge,  hygiene^  is  found  to  be  an  art  more 
important  than  medicine — prevention  is  recognized  to  be 
something  better  than  cure.  The  tons  of  medicine  which 
were  annually  swallowed  by  the  British  public  are  already 
sensibly  reduced.  Physicians  and  apothecaries  begin  to 
look  anxiously  around  for  protection  ;  and  society,  at  this 
pace,  is  not  unlikely  soon  to  adopt  the  sage  custom  of  the 
court  of  China,  which  consists  in  paying  its  medical  adviser 

*  Hufeland,  a  philosophic  physician  and  professor  of  medicine  in 
the  Universty  of  Jena.  f  Mayo.  J  Beale. 

g  Alcott.          ||  Dunglison,  Smith,  Johnston,  and  others. 
«J  Tilt.  **  Combe.  ff  Job,  vii. 

J|  The  italics  are  our  own  except  a  few. 

46 


542  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

as  long  as  the  sovereign  is  well,  and  withholding  his  salary 
during  the  term  of  the  royal  illness.  Accordingly,  although 
it  seems  hard  to  expect  those  who  live  by  curing  disease 
to  co-operate  in  preventing  it,  the  enlightened  few  see 
which  way  the  wind  sets,  and  are  already  lending  their 
efforts  to  promote  hygienic  knowledge. 

"But  I  am  no  renegade  to  my  profession.  No  one 
knows  better,  [modest!]  or  would  argue  more  stoutly,  than 
myself,  that  the  common  basis  of  hygienic  and  of  medical 
knowledge  is  an  enlightened  study  of  disease,  [one  would 
think  so,  extremely  sharp!]  and  that  physicians  and  sur- 
geons have  honestly  [clever  !]  done  their  best  for  the  real 
interests  of  both,  in  their  long  and  elaborate  researches, 
which  have  resulted  in  modern  physiology  and  pathology. 
For  the  first  step  to  be  realized  was,  the  determination  of 
what  it  is  that  is  to  be  cured,  or  prevented,  of  what  are  the 
causes,  what  the  intimate  nature,  and  what  the  spontane- 
ous course  and  progress  of  disease.  Thus  much,  I  repeat, 
this  necessary  initial  achievement  has  been  worthily  ac- 
complished by  the  labors  of  physicians  and  surgeons.  The 
science,  so  to  speak,  has  been  done  ample  justice  to  ;  not 
so  the  art,  at  least  the  medical  part  of  the  art  of  healing. 
Not  that  efforts  on  the  part  of  physicians  in  this  direction 
have  been  wholly  wanting  or  erroneous.  [They  have  been 
in  active  existence  and  successful  progress  for  more  than 
two  thousand  years:  witness  Hygeia  and  her  lbig  snake,1 
which  he  so  much  admires.]  Not  to  speak  of  the  noble 
half -hygienic  [only  half?]  invention  of  Jenner  for  the  ex- 
tirpation of  small-pox,  the  realization  of  the  efficiency  of 
bleeding,  of  calomel,  of  tartar  emetic  in  various  forms  of 
inflammation,  of  opium,  colchicum,  iodine,  in  other  speci- 
alities, [specialties  ?]  are  valuable  points  in  the  art.  But 
still  the  art  is  a  world  behind  the  science."  (Compare 
with  Hufeland,  fifty-five  years  before,  on  the  origin  of  ideas  !) 
Next  to  this  follows  an  ignominious  insult  to  "nineteen  cases 
[gentlemen]  out  of  twenty"  of  the  profession  to  which  he, 
of  course,  is  "no  renegade." 


IIYGEIA.  543 

By  consulting  the  preface  to  Prof.  Mayo's  work,  we  find  the 
following  statements  :  "  The  Philosophy  of  Living,  of  which 
I  am  now  preparing  a  third  edition,  was  written  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  an  eminent  publisher,  [a  book  to  order,]  who  de- 
sired to  have  a  book  to  the  title.  I  gladly  acceded  to  a 
proposal  which  offered  me  an  opportunity  of  using  up 
some  odds  and  ends  of  physiological  reflection,  and  in- 
volved the  necessity  of  referring  to  their  sources  for  vari- 
ous curious  and  valuable  facts  hitherto  only  vaguely  known 
to  me.  The  book  is,  accordingly,  a  superficial  compilation 
of  facts  and  principles,  which  any  one,  without  previous 
physiological  reading,  may  understand."  He  further  says 
of  his  book  :  "  It  is  to  be  viewed,  therefore,  rather  as  ancil- 
lary to  the  advice  of  the  fashionable  physician,  than  as 
conveying  lessons  of  sanatory  regulation  and  provision 
for  the  poorer  classes."  Thus  "  The  Philosophy  of  Living" 
appears,  a  book  to  order,  made  up  of  "  odds  and  ends  of  phy- 
siological reflection;"  acknowledged  by  its  author  to  be  a 
"  superficial  compilation  of  facts  and  principles,"  u  ancil- 
lary [subservient]  to  fashionable  physicians,"  without 
much  " provision  for  the  poorer  classes." 

The  author  of  "  The  Philosophy  of  Living"  is  Herbert 
Mayo,  M.D.,  "formerly  Senior  Surgeon  to  the  Middlesex 
Hospital,  and  one  of  the  Professors  of  Anatomy  and  Sur- 
gery of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,"  etc.  etc.  His  broad 
generalization  is  that  "  Hygiene  is  found  to  be  an  art  more 
important  than  medicine."  What  does  he  mean  by  the  "art 
of  medicine  ?"  The  physician  prescribing,  (supposed  to  be 
in  close  communication  with  the  science  of  man,)  the  drug- 
gists compounding  doses,  (posology,)  or  nurse  administer- 
ing remedies  ?  Webster's  definition  of  Hygiene  is  "  that  de- 
partment of  medicine  which  treats  of  the  preservation  of 
health."  That  it  is  a  very  "  important  department  of  medi- 
cine" there  can  be  no  doubt ;  but  why  such  division  into 
two  arts  that  are  only  departments  of  one,  with  an  address 
to  the  popular  mind  which  is  an  injustice  to  the  profession 
from  which  he  says  he  is,  of  course,  "no  renegade  ?" 


544  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

One  glance  at  the  table  of  contents  of  the  book  will  show 
its  connection  with  medical  science. 

DIVERSITIES  OF  CONSTITUTION. — 1.  Temperament ;  2.  Habit ;  3.  Dia- 
thesis. 

CHAP.  I.  OF  DIET. — 1.  Digestion;  2.  Food,  (whole  story  of  ali- 
mentation;) 3.  Quantity  of  Food;  4.  Intervals  between  Meals; 

5.  Conditions  which  strengthen  or  weaken  the  Digestive  Powers ; 

6.  Of  Food  at  Different  Ages  ;  7.  Social  Relations  of  Food. 

CHAP.  II.  OF  EXERCISE,  (as  Exercise  of  Muscles.)  —  Exercise  of 
Boys ;  Physical  Education  of  Girls ;  Exercise  proper  for  Adults ; 
Exercise  of  the  Aged. 

CHAP.  III.  OF  SLEEP. — (Whole  story  as  far  as  recorded.) 

CHAP.  IV.  OF  BATHING. — (Whole  story,  including  Preservation  of 
Teeth.) 

CHAP.  V.  OF  CLOTHING. 

CHAP.  VI.  OF  AIR  OR  CLIMATE. — 1.  General  Properties  of  the  At- 
mosphere; 2.  Noxious  Agencies  of  Air  and  Climate  generally  con- 
sidered; 3.  Malaria,  (whole  story;)  4.  Climate  suited  to  the  Strumous 
Diathesis. 

CHAP.  VII.  HEALTH  OF  MIND. — (Habits  of  Mind  favoring  Health 
of  Body;)  1.  Of  Self-control;  2.  Of  Intellectual  Culture  and  Occu- 
pation. 

"  This  necessary  initial  achievement  has  been  worthily 
accomplished  by  the  labors  of  physicians  and  surgeons. " 
So  much  for  an  "art  more  important  than  medicine;"  so 
much  for  the  confounding  of  words  and  the  effort  at  mere 
abstractions  in  science. 

Hear,  also,  the  great  Hufeland,  at  Jena,  1796,  fifty-five 
years  before  Mayo  :  "  The  life  of  man,  physically  considered, 
is  a  peculiar  chemico-animal  operation;  a  phenomenon 
effected  by  a  concurrence  of  the  united  powers  of  nature 
with  matter  in  a  continual  state  of  change.  This,  like  every 
other  physical  operation,  must  have  its  defined  laws,  bound- 
aries, and  duration,  so  far  as  they  depend  on  the  sum  of  the 
given  powers  and  matter,  their  application,  and  many  other 
external  as  well  as  internal  circumstances ;  but,  like  every 
other  physical  operation,  it  can  be  promoted  or  impeded, 
accelerated  or  retarded.  By  laying  down  just  principles  re- 
specting its  essence  and  wants,  and  by  attending  to  observa- 


HYGEIA.  545 

tions  made  from  experience,  the  circumstances  under  which 
this  process  may  be  hastened  and  shortened,  or  retarded  and 
prolonged,  can  be  discovered.  Upon  this  may  be  founded 
dietetic  rules  and  a  medical  mode  of  treatment  for  preserv- 
ing life;  and  hence  arises  a  particular  science,  the  MACRO- 
BIOTIC, or  the  art  of  prolonging  it,  which  forms  the  subject 
of  the  present  work. 

"This  art,  however,  must  not  be  confounded  with  the 
common  art  of  medicine  or  medical  regimen;  its  objects, 
means,  and  boundaries  are  different.  The  object  of  the 
medical  art  is  health  ;  that  of  the  macrobiotic,  long  life. 
[Long  life  and  health  are  supposed  to  be  somewhat  con- 
nected ;  but  it  seems  here  that  '  dietetic  rules'  and  a  '  medi- 
cal mode  of  treatment  for  preserving  life,'  'health,'  and  the 
'macrobiotic  art,'  are  'different,' although  the  latter  ' arise s' 
from  the  former  !]  The  means  employed  in  the  medical  art 
are  regulated  according  to  the  present  state  of  the  body  and 
its  variations ;  [case,  head  and  stomach  sick  from  rum  and 
tobacco;  one  'means  of  medical  art,'  take  no  more!~\  those 
of  the  macrobiotic  by  general  principles.  [Case,  head 
and  stomach  not  sick  from  rum  or  tobacco ;  on  the  pro- 
longation of  life  question,  what  has  the  macrobiotic  art  to 
say? — take  rum  and  tobacco,  or  take  no  more?  But  it 
seems  the  'object,  means,'  of  the  two  arts  are  l  different"1  !~\ 
In  the  first  it  is  sufficient  if  one  is  able  to  restore  that  health 
which  has  been  lost ;  [but  it  is  no  art  of  'prolonging  life'!~\ 
but  no  person  thinks  of  inquiring  whether,  by  the  means 
used  for  that  purpose,  life,  upon  the  whole,  will  be  length- 
ened or  shortened;  [every  physician  does;]  and  the  latter 
is  often  the  case  in  many  methods  employed  in  medicine. 
[A  play  upon  crotchets.]  The  medical  art  must  consider 
every  disease  as  an  evil  which  cannot  be,  too  soon,  expelled ; 
[as  by  a  blister,  sound  !]  the  macrobiotic,  on  the  other  hand, 
shows  that  many  diseases  [a  blistered  surface  is  not  normal 
but  diseased}  may  be  the  means  of  prolonging  life.  [Sound  ! 
But  are  the  '  medical'  and  '  macrobiotic'  arts  so  entirely  'dif- 
ferent'?] The  'medical  art,'  by  corroborative  and  other 

46* 


546  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

remedies,  [by  every  conceivable  influence,  force,  or  power 
of  the  world  which  makes  it,  the  medical  art,  a  perfect  and 
limitless  formula,]  to  elevate  mankind  to  the  highest  degree 
of  strength  and  physical  perfection  ;  while  the  '  macrobiotic' 
proves  that  here,  even,  there  is  a  maximum,  [in  mathema- 
tics, greatest  quantity  attainable,]  and  that  strengthening, 
[elevating  mankind  to  highest  perfection]  carried  too 
far,  [??!!]  may  tend  to  accelerate,  and  consequently,  to 
shorten  its  duration.  The  practical  part  of  medicine,  there- 
fore, ['all  science  has  but  one  aim,  to  find  a  theory  of  nature, 
and  to  a  sound  judgment  the  most  abstract  truth  is  the  most 
practical;'  the  only  evidence,  therefore,  of  the  profundity 
and  validity  of  a  theory  being  its  applicability  to  nature,  it 
is  clear  that  'the  only  part  of  medicine'  which  men  hold  to  be 
of  any  consequence,  is  the  'practical,'  or  true  and  only 
science  of  medicine,']  in  regard  to  the  macrobiotic  art,  is  to 
be  considered  only  as  an  auxiliary  science  which  teaches 
us  how  to  know  diseases,  [of  course,  their  opposite,  health, 
and  thus,  physiology  and  pathology,  the  only  two  condi- 
tions it  is  possible  to  conceive  of  the  body  existing  in  at 
all,]  the  enemies  of  life,  and  how  to  prevent  and  expel 
them,  but  which,  however,  must  itself  be  SUBSERVIENT  to 
the  higher  laws  of  the  latter." 

It  would  be  natural  to  inquire  what  is  meant  by  the  "  prac- 
tical part  of  medicine  ?"  Is  it  the  mere  art  of  drugging 
(posology)  by  routine,  or  the  application  of  the  dead  letter 
of  the  Pharmacopoeia  to  the  dead  letter  of  the  nosological 
table,  or  the  art,  which,  with  all  the  light  of  the  moment, 
cognizes  and  treats  with  scientific  precision,  prophylactically 
and  therapeutically,  all  normal  and  abnormal  conditions  of 
the  human  body  ? 

Whence  did  the  art  of  macrobiology  obtain  a  knowledge 
of  the  "higher  laws"  to  which  the  " art  of  medicine"  must 
be  "subservient?"  Whence  its  knowledge  of  man  ?  There 
is  but  one  key  to  all  knowledge  of  man :  the  anatomy  and 
physiology  of  the  human  body,  the  foundation  of  the  "  art 
of  medicine."  Whence  its  knowledge  of  the  "life  of  man 


HYGEIA.  547 

as  a  " chemico-animal  phenomenon?"  There  is  but  one 
source  of  the  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  "life,"  namely,  the 
science  of  "physiology,"  which  is  the  foundation  of  all  vital 
operations  of  the  body,  normal  or  abnormal,  or  in  health  and 
disease.  These  are  the  elements  of  the  "art  of  medicine," 
the  noblest  of  all  arts,  "  auxiliary"  to  no  other  science,  and 
"  subservient"  to  no  other  art — itself  the  true  macrobiotic 
art  of  all  arts,  called,  from  of  old,  the  "healing  art,"  or  the 
true  "art  of  prolonging  life." 

The  sage  of  Jena,  in  his  chapter  on  "Preventing  Dis- 
eases, Judicious  Treatment  of  them,  and  Proper  use  of 
Medicine  and  Physicians,"  says  :  "The  business  of  medi- 
cine is  to  guard  against  these  [diseases]  as  well  as  to  cure 
them ;  and  so  far  medicine  may  be  considered  and  em- 
ployed as  a  means  for  prolonging  life."  Again,  he  asks 
"How  does  the  practice  of  physic  contribute  to  the  pro- 
longation of  life?  Can  one  consider  it  absolutely  as  a 
means  for  prolonging  our  existence  ?  Without  doubt  we 
can,  so  far  as  it  cures  disorders  that  might  destroy  us,  but 
not  always  in  other  respects."  He  then  attempts  to  show 
that  to  restore  health  and  prolong  life  are  not  the  same. 
He  proceeds  to  answer  questions  which  concern  those  who 
are  not  physicians.  "  By  what  means  can  disease  be  pre- 
vented ?  How  ought  those,  which  have  already  appeared,  to 
be  treated?  and,  in  particular,  how  ought  physicians  and 
the  medical  art  to  be  employed  in  order  to  contribute  in  the 
highest  degree  possible  to  the  support  and  prolongation  of 
life  ?"  Following  which  is  a  dissertation  upon  this  subject 
and  an  answer  also  to  the  question  —  "In  what  manner 
should  a  disease,  which  has  already  taken  place,  be  treated, 
and  what  use  ought  to  be  made  of  physicians  and  of  the 
medical  art?"  This  is  arranged  under  fourteen  "rules," 
embracing  his  conceptions  of  the  connection  of  the  medical 
with  the  macrobiotic  art. 

An  inspection  of  the  table  of  contents  of  Hufeland's  book 
will  give  some  apprehension  of  the  domain  over  which  reigns 
the  goddess  of  health  ;  also,  ^Esculapius,  god  of  medicine ; 


THE   MOUNTAIN. 

in  other  words,  the  inseparability  of  the  parts  of  one  great 
art,  the  indivisibility  of  one  great  science  into  major  or 
minor,  subservient  or  ancillary  departments,  and  the  im- 
possibility of  one  existing  without  the  other. 

PART  FIRST.  CHAP.  I. — State  of  the  science  of  prolonging  life 
among  the  ancients ;  state  in  middle  ages,  and  on  down  to  Mesmer. 

CHAP.  II. — Of  the  vital  powers ;  whole  problem  of  life,  its  essen- 
tial nature,  laws,  etc. 

CHAP.  III. — Duration  of  life  of  plants ;  the  laws  thereof,  etc.  etc. 

CHAP.  IV. — Duration  in  animal  world ;  general  view,  etc. 

CHAP.  V. — Duration  of  life  of  man;  general  recitation  of  the  facts 
thereof,  etc. 

CHAP.  VI. — Results  of  above  observations ;  influence  of  the  world 
on  its  life ;  states  and  conditions  of  inhabitants  on  the  same ;  rela- 
tive duration  of;  tables  of,  etc. 

CHAP.  VII. — Special  examination  of  human  life  ;  definition  of 
operation  of;  condition  of  laws,  without,  within;  history  of. 

CHAP.  VIII. — Signs  of  long  life  in  individuals;  dissertation  on  the 
organs,  their  laws,  and  portrait  of  a  long  liver. 

CHAP.  IX. — Examination  of  methods  of  prolonging  life ;  recita- 
tion from  elixirs  down  to  proper  means  and  modifications  of  the 
same,  etc. 

PART  SECOND. — Practical  art  of  prolonging  life.    1.  MEANS  WHICH 

SHORTEN  LIFE. 

CHAP.  I. — Delicate  nursing  and  treatment  in  infancy. 

CHAP.  II — Physical  excess  in  youth. 

CHAP.  III. — Overstrained  exertion  of  the  mental  faculties. 

CHAP.  IV. — Diseases;  injudicious  manner  of  treating  them;  sud- 
den kinds  of  death ;  propensity  to  self-murder. 

CHAP.  V. — Impure  arr;  men  living  together  in  large  cities. 

CHAP.  VI. — Intemperance  in  eating  and  drinking;  refined  cookery ; 
spirituous  liquors. 

CHAP.  VII. — Passions  and  dispositions  of  mind  which  shorten  life; 
peevishness  ;  too  much  occupation  and  business. 

CHAP.  VIII. — The  fear  of  death. 

CHAP.  IX. — Idleness ;  inactivity ;  languor. 

CHAP.  X. — Overstrained  power  of  the  imagination ;  imaginary  dis- 
eases ;  sensibility. 

CHAP.  XI. — Poisons,  physical  as  well  as  infectious. 

CHAP.  XII. — Old  age ;  premature  engrafting  of  it  on  youth. 


HYGEIA.  549 

PART  THIRD.     MEANS  WHICH  PROLONG  LIFE. 

CHAP.  I.— Good  physical  descent. 

CHAP.  II. — Prudent  physical  education. 

CHAP.  III. — Active  and  laborious  youth. 

CHAP.  IV. — Abstinence  from  physical  love  in  youth,  and  too  early 
assumption  of  the  married  state. 

CHAP.  V. — Happy  married  state. 

CHAP.  VI.— Sleep. 

CHAP.  VII.- — Bodily  exercise. 

CHAP.  VIII. — The  enjoyment  of  free  air;  moderate  temperature 
of  warmth. 

CHAP.  IX. — Rural  and  country  life. 

CHAP.  X. — Traveling. 

CHAP.  XI. — Cleanliness  and  care  of  the  skin. 

CHAP.  XII. — Proper  food ;  moderation  in  eating  and  drinking ; 
preservation  of  the  teeth. 

CHAP.  XIII. — Mental  tranquillity ;  contentment ;  dispositions  of 
mind  and  employments,  which  tend  to  prolong  life. 

CHAP.  XIV. — Reality  of  character. 

CHAP.  XV. — Agreeable  stimulants  of  the  senses  and  of  sensation 
moderately  used. 

CHAP.  XVI. — Preventing  diseases;  judicious  treatment  of  them; 
proper  use  of  medicine  and  physicians. 

CHAP.  XVII. — Relief  in  cases  where  one  is  exposed  to  the  danger 
of  sudden  death. 

CHAP.  XVIII. — Old  age;  proper  treatment  of  it. 

CHAP.  XIX. — Cultivation  of  the  mental  and  bodily  powers. 

From  this  table  of  contents  it  would  appear  that  the 
"Art  of  Prolonging  Life"  involves  every  relationship  of 
man  to  the  world,  and  thus  a  recapitulation  of  the  resources 
and  implements  of  that  art  would  be  a  schedule  or  peri- 
scope of  the  whole  domain  of  both  outward  and  inward 
existences. 

Chapters  of  this  department  of  medical  science  have  been 
bravely  labored  out  by  different  writers  and  observers,  and 
partially  finished ;  and  it  appears  upon  the  records  of  that 
literature  that  mere  catalogues  of  the  implements  of  pre- 
vention, belonging  to  the  domain  of  Hygiene,  fill  volumes. 
Illustrious  names  are  recorded  in  this  department,  and  the 
race  would  do  well,  in  its  mad  rushing,  to  pause,  and  hear 


550  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

the  lessons  of  wisdom  from  a  Hufeland,  Comb,  Johnston, 
Smith,  Dunglison,  Tilt,  Beale,  or  a  Mayo,  and  the  whole 
school  of  human  physiologists. 

The  extent  of  the  literature  or  bibliography  of  the  medi- 
cal profession  in  this  department  is  surprising.  Some  of 
the  works  are  of  a  popular  character,  addressing  the  com- 
prehension of  all ;  others  are  of  a  more  technical  and  scien- 
tific structure,  belonging  to  the  order  of  strictly  professional 
books.  However  popularized  or  familiarized,  the  knowledge 
belongs  to  the  department  of  medical  science  which  takes 
cognizance  of  the  instrumentality  of  prevention  (prophy- 
lactics) as  well  as  implements  of  cure  (therapeutics)  of 
disease.  The  strictly  professional  books  are  significant 
and  wise,  but  are  not  accessible  to  all,  and  it  has  now  be- 
come the  imperative  duty  of  every  physician  to  be  a  preacher 
(he  is  a  high-priest  in  the  temple  of  Apollo)  of  the  gospel 
of  life  and  the  laws  of  health,  if  he  has  any  exalted  appre- 
hension of  the  aims  and  ends  of  his  calling,  or  realizes  the 
high  and  noble  functions  of  his  sphere  as  the  destroyer  of 
pain  and  suffering,  and  the  creator  of  health  and  happi- 
ness.* Sacred  is  his  calling,  sublime  are  the  duties  of  his 
mission,  but  vast  is  the  extent  of  his  field  of  labor,  and 
fearful  are  the  responsibilities  of  his  vocation. 

"Man  is  in  little  all  the  sphere."  The  wonderful  extent 
and  variety  of  his  relations  come  from  the  universality  of  his 
connection  with  the  world,  and  his  total  circularity,  rather 
sphericity,  of  organization.  Having  "more  points  of  contact 
with  the  whole  of  nature  by  which  he  is  surrounded,"  than  any 
other  creature  in  existence,  it  has  been  arranged  that  the  mi- 
crocosm (little  world)  has  all  the  macrocosm  (great  world) 
to  consult  for  his  health,  as  nothing  exists  that  is  not  in 
connection  with  him,  physiologically,  pathologically.  This 
embraces  his  highest  bonds  of  affiliation,  as  well  as  the 

*  "A  Greek  philosopher  and  physician  had  so  just  an  apprecia- 
tion of  the  nobility  of  his  mission,  that  he  called  the  physician  'the 
hand  of  God.'  Are  we  Christians  to  have  a  less  exalted  notion  of 
our  duties  than  the  pagan  Hierophilus  ?" — EDWARD  JOHN  TILT. 


IIYGEIA.  551 

lowest  details  of  his  merely  animal  nature,  even  to  the  most 
forlorn  exigencies  of  his  brutehood. 

Hence,  it  must  strike  the  serious  observer,  how  simple  and 
familiar  to  the  open  eye  are  the  greater  number  of  the  sources 
of  power  of  the  art  of  hygiene.  Here  are  no  far-off  attain- 
ments in  arts  and  sciences,  no  recondite  abstractions,  or  spe- 
cial medical  formulae,  but  commonplace  and  vulgar  things, 
every-day-by-the-roadside  influences  on  the  bodies  we  have ; 
what  we  eat,  and  especially  how  fixed  up ;  the  water  we  drink, 
as  necessary,  medicinal ;  the  air  we  breathe  ;  how,  when, 
and  where  we  sleep ;  what  we  wear,  and  how  we  wear  it ; 
what  we  do,  and  how  we  do  it;  to  all  of  which  may  be 
added  the  influences  from  the  side  of  the  soul.  And  first,  a 
word  on  the 

BODIES  WE   HAVE. 

Before  the  problem  of  hereditary  disease,  and  hereditary 
proclivity  to  certain  diseases,  the  mind  stands  aghast,  espe- 
cially on  the  abysmal  question  of  justice  and  compensation 
between  the  Finite  and  Infinite.*  "  Sour  grapes"  have  been 
consumed,  and  tubercle  and  cancer,  the  "children's  teeth  set 
on  edge,"  are  the  crop  in  this  harvest  of  woe.  The  bitter 
results  of  ignorant  and  lawless  generation  realized,  what  can 
be  done  by  science  and  art  in  this  inalienable  entailment  of 
despair  ? 

The  mild  goddess  offers  immense  consolation  and  solace 
in  the  habits  of  a  well-regulated  life,  and  in  the  vast  resources 
of  temperance  and  virtue  ;  but  especially  is  the  result  to  be 
achieved  by  the  prevention  of  the  issues  of  profane  genesis 
in  congenital  taints,  malformations,  and  infirmities.  Shall 
the  end  surely  come  soon,  in  the  ineffable  beneficence  of  the 
promise, — "As  I  live,  saith  the  Lord,  ye  shall  not  have  occa- 
sion any  more  to  use  this  proverb  in  Israel."  The  body, 
with  transmitted  adaptation  or  hereditary  tendency  to  dis- 
ease, is  under  the  special  protection,  and  belongs  to  the  de- 

*  Concerning  the  origin  of  evil,  optimism  of  Nature,  and  "God 
in  Disease,"  see  Benedict  Spinoza,  William  Godwin,  and  James  F. 
Duncan. 


552  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

partment  of  medicine  which  prevents  disease  ;  but  all  bodies 
of  all  men  are  under  the  same  power,  whose  resources  are 
endless. 

WHAT   WE   EAT. 

"  Make  the  sin  of  intemperance,  popularly  so  called,  great 
as  you  please, — as  great  even  as  God  makes  it, — and  it  falls 
short,  very  far  short,  of  the  sin  of  intemperance,  as  con- 
nected with  the  use  of  food."*  Gastronomy  has  come  to 
be  a  science,  f  an  art  rather,  higher  than  a  science,  and  there 
have  been  inspired  cooks,  men  of  genius  who  were  cooks.  J 
The  gastronomic  "  fine  art"  has  become  a  part  of  the  reli- 
gion of  the  "  dominant  race,"  and  will  soon  demand  sepa- 
rate temples  of  worship.  Great  is  the  "  belly,"  much  greater 
than  the  "members." 

The  stomach  of  man  is  the  base  of  the  pyramid  man,  the 
living  foundation  of  his  high  and  glorified  form.  Heavy  and 
cumbrous,  but  broad  and  firm,  it  rests  upon  the  bosom  of 
the  earth,  and  in  the  repose  of  Gizeh,  Sachara,  or  Cholula, 
it  says,  I  am  planted  forever.  It  is  the  bond  of  universal 
alliance  with  all  nature  and  created  things,  from  the  lowest 
to  the  highest.  The  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms  are  its 

*  A 1. 

•}•  Elaborate  works  have  been  written  on  gastronomy.  A  General 
History  of  Cooking  was  published  at  Leipsic  in  1835,  "in  ten  portly 
volumes,"  8vo.,  and  other  works  on  that  beautiful  and  attractive 
science  had  appeared  before,  and  have  since,  so  that  they  now  con- 
stitute a  library  of  gastronomy. 

J  Vatel,  the  maitre  d'hotel  of  Conde,  was  a  man  of  genius.  He 
committed  suicide  because  he  had  made  a  blunder  in  the  preparation 
of  a  breakfast.  "Who  was  ever  more  worthy  of  the  respect  and 
gratitude  of  true  gourmands,  than  the  man  of  genius  who  would  not 
survive  the  dishonor  of  the  table  of  the  great  Conde*  ?  who  immolated 
himself  with  his  own  hands,  because  the  sea-fish  had  not  arrived 
some  hours  before  it  was  served  ?  So  noble  a  death  insures  you, 
venerable  shade,  the  most  glorious  immortality !  You  have  proved 
that  the  fanaticism  of  honor  can  exist  in  the  kitchen  as  well  as  the 
camp,  and  that  the  spit  and  the  saucepan  have  also  their  Catos  and 
their  Deciuses." — Almanack  des  Gourmands. 


HYGEIA.  553 

reservoirs  of  life,  and  its  consanguinity  is  absolute  with  all 
the  creatures  of  the  earth,  sea,  and  air. 

"  For  there  is  nothing  more  general  in  animal  life  than 
the  digestive  apparatus,  because  matter  is  the  largest,  if  not 
the  greatest  fact  in  the  universe.  Every  creature  which  is 
here  must  be  made  of  something,  and  maintained  by  some- 
thing, or  must  be  landlord  of  itself.  Every  part  and  every 
faculty  of  every  being  inhabiting  the  planet  must  be  duly 
clothed,  and  ballasted,  with  stuff  derived  from  the  earth,  or 
it  would  have  no  operation  in  the  body,  or  upon  the  body, 
much  less  upon  the  external  world. 

"  Hence,  the  stomach  is  an  organ  of  the  first  importance 
to  all  mortals.  You  may  take  away  brain  or  nervous  sys- 
tem and  leave  their  places  to  be  supplied  by  the  fluxions  and 
imponderables  of  Nature ;  you  may  take  away  the  lungs 
and  consign  their  office  to  the  circumambient,  lifeless  atmo- 
sphere ;  you  may  abstract  the  heart  with  its  blood-vessels, 
and  commit  the  dull,  gluey  circulation  to  the  almost  me- 
chanical and  chemical  laws  of  affinity  that  obtain  in  vege- 
tables, and,  notwithstanding  all  this,  you  may  still  have  an 
animal  being  remaining.  In  short,  there  are  animals  which 
are  nothing  but  stomachs,  but  there  are  no  animals  which 
are  nothing  but  brains.  In  the  human  race,  also,  the  stomach 
is  of  the  same  paramount  importance ;  its  existence  and  due 
impletion  are  the  first  or  last  conditions  of  the  existence  of 
the  individual;  they  are  the  basis  of  humanity,  and  no- 
thing is  so  sublime  but  it  rests  upon  them,  and  must  perish 
out  of  this  world  if  they  cease,  and  otherwise  follow  their 
vicissitudes.  The  assured  feeding  of  the  nations  is  a  ques- 
tion that  involves  in  its  settlement  all  other  questions,  and 
postpones  sublimities  until  necessities  are  complied  with. 
Jeweled  goblets  there  are  besides,  but  this  earthen  cup  must 
be  satisfied  before  the  other  vessels  of  the  man  can  begin  to 
be  filled." 

This  intimate  alliance  or  physical  affinity  with  all  earthly 
beings  must  necessitate  or  preordain  a  general  dominion ; 
also,  a  subjugation  to  universal  law,  for  every  form  of  every 

41 


554  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

animal  is  but  a  man  in  disguise.  Hence  the  grandeur  of 
this  "  earthen  cup,"  the  stomach  and  its  laws,  and  from  the 
universality  of  its  affinities,  comes  the  multitudinous  world  of 
horrors  in  the  shape  of  diseases,  to  which  the  infraction  of  those 
laws  introduce  the  unhappy  creature,  man.  Is  this  humble 
earthen-cup  the  veritable  vessel  of  Pandora  ?  "  When  Pro- 
metheus had  stolen  the  fire  from  heaven,  Zeus  in  revenge 
caused  Hephaestus  to  make  a  woman  out  of  earth,  who  by 
her  charms  and  beauty  should  bring  misery  upon  the  human 
race.  Aphrodite  adorned  her  with  beauty,  Hermes  gave 
her  boldness  and  cunning,  and  the  gods  called  her  Pandora, 
as  each  of  the  Olympians  had  given  her  some  power  by  which 
she  was  to  work  the  ruin  of  man.  Hermes  took  her  to 
Epimetheus,  who  forgot  the  advice  of  his  brother  Prome- 
theus, not  to  accept  any  gift  from  Zeus,  and  from  that  mo- 
ment the  fatal  vessel  of  gifts  of  the  gods  was  opened,  and 
all  miseries  came  down  upon  men,  the  blessings  having 
escaped  irrecoverably."  Mournful  consummation !  And  have 
the  gifts  of  the  Olympians  all  escaped  on  the  wings  of  the 
wind,  through  disease  and  infirmity,  only  the  fatal  power  re- 
maining "to  work  the  ruin  of  man?"  Is  this  cave  of  the 
vital  forces  wholly  surrendered  to  the  destroyers  ?  Once 
the  magical  grotto  from  which  the  golden  currents  of  life 
rushed  to  the  remotest  atoms  of  the  body,  is  it  now  a  bale- 
ful lake  of  Avernus,  over  whose  dismal  waters  the  birds 
dare  not  fly,  and  in  whose  poisonous  bosom  the  fabulous 
Proteus  alone  can  swim  ? 

Catalogues  of  diseases  of  the  stomach,  their  causes  and 
treatment,  make  volumes.  Alas  !  for  the  base  of  the  Pyra- 
mid Man !  Alas  !  for  the  magazine  of  his  powers,  the 
fountain  of  the  rivers  of  his  body  !  Tantalus  is  no  fable  : 
it  means  the  impossibility  of  eating  anything  that  will  not 
nauseate  and  rebel ;  for  your  stomach  is  diseased,  "  broken 
the  goblet  and  wasted  the  wine."*  This  great  substratum  of 

*  "The  mind  is  its  own  place,  and  in  itself  can  make  a  heaven  of 
hell,  a  hell  of  heaven."  Not  so  while  in  the  body,  which  also  "is 
its  own  place."  Thus  the  man  diseased,  makes  his  clay  a  colored 


HYGEIA.  555 

man  from  whose  vital  surface  all  the  radicles  of  the  miracu- 
lous tree  of  life  suck  nourishment,  is  poisoned  and  foul. 
The  Cadmus  sin  has  sown  it  with  dragon  teeth,  and  the 
harvest  is  death.* 

THE   WATERS  WE   DRINK,  f 

That  the  habitual  use  of  water  surcharged  with  earthy 
salts  is  productive  of  disease,  there  is  not  the  least  doubt. 
Pure  water  is  the  great  hygienic  water.  It  is  a  generally 
received  impression  that  the  influence  of  climate,  and  other 
agents,  in  the  prevention  (as  well  as  cure)  of  many  diseases, 
is  effectually  promoted  by  the  use  of  what  are  called  "min- 
eral waters."  Many  places,  like  the  fabulous  wells  and  en- 
chanted springs  of  Eastern  romance,  have,  by  common  con- 
sent, been  made  shrines  and  places  of  holy  pilgrimage  to 
the  world  of  invalids.  Like  the  belief  in  charms  and  witches, 
this  faith  has,  as  have  many  others,  come  to  be  accepted 
without  challenge  by  multitudes  of  unreflecting  minds.  How 
just  and  rational,  how  near  to  science  and  demonstration, 
this  impression  is,  unassisted  common  sense  alone  can  an- 
swer. The  unintelligent,  indiscriminate  flocking  to  watering- 
places,  or  "  going  to  the  springs"  as  it  is  called,  is  essentially 
absurd. 

The  diseases  in  which  mineral  waters  have  been  supposed 
to  possess  their  most  energetic  action,  preventive  and  cura- 
tive, are  those  of  the  digestive,  or  great  assimilative  function. 

In  joint,  nervous,  skin,  and  uterine  diseases,  the  efficacy 
of  a  change  of  water,  or  the  supposed  specific  benefit  of  a 
particular  water  on  those  diseases,  is  wholly  referable  to  the 

medium,  or  glass,  through  which  he  looks  upon  the  world.  Suppose 
an  inflamed  stomach,  or  an  ulcerated  intestinal  tube,  the  optical  in- 
strument through  which  he  contemplates  the  earth  and  its  glories,  the 
heavens  and  their  majesties.  Would  nature  or  the  stars  bloom  with 
celestial  beauty  to  one  in  the  horrors  of  gastritis  or  pains  of  the 
bowels?  Is  not  the  "mens  sana  in  corpore  sano"  the  end  of  all 
science? 

*  See  note,  page  564.  f  See  note,  page  564. 


556  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

impression  made  upon  the  digestive  machinery,  and  the  re- 
energizing power  of  the  large  new  functional  impression, 
made  by  all  surrounding  influences,  water  included. 

That  a  perfectly  adapted  regimen  and  suitable  climate,  as- 
sisted by  the  novel  impression  of  a  change  of  water,  will 
modify  the  action  of  morbidly  inclined,  or  even  morbidly  im- 
pressed and  seized  mucous  membranes,  skin,  and  viscera  of 
splanchnic  cavities,  and  induce  a  new  action  in  chronic 
cases  of  vicious  habitudes  of  organs,  is  not  questionable.  But 
the  application  of  one  mineral  water  to  diverse  and  various 
derangements  of  complexly-mixed,  and  often  different  states, 
or  diseased  conditions,  or  impending  diseases,  as  specially 
preventive  or  curative  of  them  all,  is  simply,  in  the  present 
state  of  science,  preposterous.  That  certain  new  impres- 
sions made  by  whatever  causes  upon  the  organism  about  to 
be  diseased,  or  that  is  diseased,  in  various  ways  further  the 
efforts  of  the  great  guardian  sanitary  forces  of  complaining 
parts,  and  facilitate  their  return  to  a  state  of  normality,  there 
can  be  no  doubt. 

But  that  in  the  indefinitely-complicated  derangements  of  a 
number  of  differently-diseased  persons,  with  diversity  of  tem- 
peraments, ages,  habits  of  life,  and  idiosyncrasies,  all,  or  any 
number  of  them,  shall  be  specifically  relieved  by  one  and  the 
same  water,  of  one  and  the  same  spring,  savors  of  the  scien- 
tific absurdity  of  the  quack's  specific  cure-all  nostrum.  "A 
well-directed  course  of  mineral  waters"  would  be  a  well- 
directed  course  of  pure  water,  rationally  mineralized,  or  medi- 
cated and  adapted  to  the  special  conditions  of  the  case,  by  an 
intelligent  medical  man.  It  is  conceded  that  many  forms  of 
stomach  disease  are  positively  (caused)  injured  by  what  are 
called  mineral  waters.  In  many  cases  of  highly  irritable, 
morbidly  impressible,  and  diseased  conditions  of  the  sto- 
mach, (and  lungs,)  mineral  waters  are  poisonous.  Efforts 
have  been  made,  with  vaunted  results,  to  refer  special  con- 
ditions of  particular  organs  to  special  waters  :  Ems,  Vichy, 
and  Plombieres,  to  this  or  that  organ  or  condition  ;  Marien- 
bad,  Carlsbad,  Kissingen,  Bedford,  and  Saratoga,  to  others, 


HYGEIA.  557 

etc.  The  great  things,  almost  altogether  overlooked,  but 
which  should  be  most  emphatically  dwelt  upon,  are  change 
of  place,  climate,  whole  environment  of  the  patient,  with 
pure  water,  and  what  medicine  an  intelligent  physician 
directs  to  be  mixed  therein.  Pure  water  alone  gives  the 
proper  base  or  menstruum  for  different  shapes  of  medical 
combinations. 

Dr.  Struve,  of  Dresden,  has  demonstrated  the  fact,  that 
factitious  mineral  waters,  made  by  chemical  imitation,  have 
all  the  demonstrable  effects  of  the  natural*  The  great 
advantage  is,  that  the  factitious  waters  may  be  changed  to 
suit  the  varying  circumstances  of  cases  developed  by  the 
progress  of  diseased  conditions,  new  complications  and 
phases  of  advancement.  Of  deobstruent,  alterative,  pre- 
vent-all, cure-all  waters,  more  than  enough  of  fables  have 
been  told ;  at  the  same  time,  it  is  true  that  certain  springs  do 
possess  over  the  body  clearly-marked  adjuvant  powers  to  pre- 
vent and  cure  morbid  conditions  of  the  same,  but  not  specific 
virtues  over  entire  diseases.  Thus  there  are  springs  said  to 
possess  specific  powers  over  bronchial  diseases.  Here  the 
direct  stroke  of  the  hammer  is  clearly  questionable ;  but  that 

*  From  the  grave  statements  of  the  advocates  of  the  inexplicable, 
powers  of  their  particular  springs,  one  might  be  led  to  suppose  that 
the  chemist  was  incapable  of  making  exact  analyses  of  their  waters, 
and  that  they  possess  some  occult  virtues  that  science  cannot,  dis- 
cover or  understand.  In  this  day  of  light  and  knowledge,  suspicion 
is  naturally  attached  to  all  charmed  fountains  of  the  world  which 
are  represented  to  possess  inexplicable  qualities  and  powers  which 
cannot  be  stated.  Any  change  of  water  is  generally  followed  by  re- 
sults of  some  kind,  but  the  question  will  constantly  arise,  are  they 
morbific  or  sanitary?  When  we  reflect  upon  the  philosophy  of  springs 
and  the  origin  of  their  mineral  contents,  the  conviction  must  come,  that 
the  waters  of  mineral  springs  must  be  constantly  changing  in  quality 
and  quantity  of  contents,  and,  in  different  seasons  and  kinds  of 
seasons,  be  very  different.  As  these  waters  all  fall  from  the  clouds 
and  percolate  the  soil  and  rocks,  dissolving  the  mineral  elements 
which  give  character  to  the  springs,  it  must  follow,  that  a  rainy  or 
dry  season  will  decide  the' precise  proportion  of  contained  matter, 
and  the  constantly  varying  qualities  of  the  waters. 

47* 


558  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

diseased  mucous  membranes  of  lungs  connected  with  vicious 
conditions  of  other  mucous  surfaces,  may  be  benefited  by 
change  of  water  through  sympathetic  action  of  allied  or- 
gans, there  is  no  doubt,  but  not  as  specific  agents.  Bron- 
chial diseases,  with  grave,  morbid  complications  in  the 
abdominal  cavity,  especially  the  upper  part  of  the  digestive 
tube,  may  undoubtedly  be  benefited  by  a  change  in  the  great 
menstruum,  or  mixing  material  from  which  the  streams  of 
blood  are  made.  Here,  again,  pure  water  is  the  desider- 
atum, mingled  with  what  science  says  is  required  by  particu- 
lar cases  in  particular  conditions.  Of  asthma,  rheumatism, 
gout,  and  nervous  derangements,  there  are  stories  connected 
with  particular  springs  and  their  powers,  unassisted  by  any 
other  great  sanitary  force,  all  of  which  come  in  an  apocry- 
phal shape.  Pure  water,  mineralized  for  the  case  by  an 
intelligent  and  wise  physician,  is  the  great  agent,  of  course, 
all  the  more  efficient  when  accompanied  by  the  sanitary 
powers  of  change  of  scenery,  locality,  climate,  etc. 

THE   AIR   WE   BREATHE. 

Volumes  have  been  written  on  the  "  use  and  abuse  of  air," 
the  "  powers  of  fresh  air  to  prevent  disease,"  the  necessity 
of  pure  air  to  health,  the  preventive  and  curative  powers 
of  air,  etc.,  from  which  it  is  obvious  that  pure  air  is  the 
greatest  prophylactic  power  of  the  world,  and,  therefore,  one 
of  the  favorite  agents  of  Hygeia  in  the  preservation  of  health. 

HOW,  WHEN,  AND    WHERE    WE    SLEEP. 

"  How  -wonderful  is  death, 
Death  and  his  brother  sleep  ! 
One,  pale  as  yonder  waning  moon, 
With  lips  of  lurid  blue  ; 
The  other,  rosy  as  the  morn 
When,  throned  on  ocean's  wave, 
It  blushes  o'er  the  world ; 
Yet  both  so  passing  wonderful !" 

The  range  between  rosy  red  and  lurid  blue  is  the  scale  of 
life  and  death.  One  of  the  most  powerful  agencies  in  the 


HYQEIA.  559 

prevention  of  disease  is  the  proper  management  of  sleep. 
The  "  preserver  of  men"  has  a  special  favorite  in  this  beau- 
ful  brother  of  death,  and  insists  upon  it  that  we  shall  be 
wary  and  wise  how,  when,  and  where  we  sleep. 

"  This  inner  part  of  the  process  of  rejuvenescence  may 
be  rendered  more  clearly  comprehensible  by  sleep,  for  this 
also  is  a  phenomenon  of  periodical  rejuvenescence,  the  reju- 
venescence of  the  consciousness.  In  sleep  the  mind  is  relaxed 
from  the  tension  in  which  it  is  held  toward  the  outward 
world  while  awake.  Thus  sleep,  a  necessary  recreation  for 
the  mind,  is  equally  required  by  all  the  powers  of  the  body 
immediately  serving  the  mind.  The  inner  formative  pro- 
cesses, on  the  contrary,  through  which  the  body  is  preserved, 
do  not  rest  during  this  time  of  retreat ;  they  rather  act  the 
more  undisturbedly  and  concentratedly.  Hence  the  reju- 
venescing  power  of  sleep  also  over  the  body,  which  appears 
so  wonderful."* 

WHAT    WE   WEAR,    AND   HOW   WE    WEAR   IT. 

The  philosophy  of  clothes  is  of  profound  interest  to  the 
"biped  without  feathers,"  and  "Sartor  Resartus"  is  ex- 
haustless  in  suggestions  as  a  critique  on  the  divine  rights 
of  the  only  universally-acknowledged  kings  and  queens  of 
the  present  time,  namely,  tailorsf  and  mantua-makers ;  and 
the  doctrine  that  "  spiritual  idiosyncrasies  reveal  themselves 
in  the  style  and  color  of  clothes,"  and  that  the  external  husk 
of  the  monkey  man,  is  all-powerful  in  the  "  table  of  forces" 
of  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil,  even  belonging  to  the 
abysmal  necessities  which  superintend  the  developments  of 
peacocks  and  parrots,  fashionable  ladies,  fops,  and  Indian 
chiefs,  ("with  stripes  of  red  and  yellow,")  have  a  sublime 
significance  in  the  publication  of  the  outside  of  things 
as  a  mode  of  "visualizing  the  ideas  of  the  eternal  mind." 

*  Braun. 

f  "The  Tailor  is  not  only  a  man,  but  something  of  a  creator  or 
divinity.  With  astonishment  the  world  will  recognize  that  the  Tailor 
is  its  hierophant,  and  hierarch,  or  even  its  god." 

SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


560  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

On  the  subject  of  clothes,  as  preventives  of  disease,  volumes 
might  be  written,  as  it  embraces  considerations  of  the  en- 
tire organization  of  man,  and  its  connection  with  all  ele- 
ments of  the  external  world.  On  the  true  philosophy  of 
clothes  the  race  is  profoundly  asleep,  in  an  ignorance 
of  Egyptian  blackness ;  but  in  the  ordinary  stupid  and 
besotted  worship  of  fashion  in  dressing,  it  is  so  entirely 
insane,  that  the  guardian  spirits  of  the  earth  have  forsaken 
it  in  disgust.  Its  fearfully  destructive  and  tragical  bearing, 
not  only  on  the  passing  generation,  but  on  the  health 
and  destiny  of  unborn  millions,  is  not  to  be  computed  by 
mathematics. 

Profoundly,  very  profoundly  we  must  penetrate  to  ex- 
haust the  hygienic  significance  of  dress  ;  and  to  a  very 
exalted  height  we  must  soar,  to  transcend  entirely  the  influ- 
ence of  the  mud-swamp  in  which  we  wriggle  like  polliwogs, 
on  the  subject  of  clothes ;  and  long,  very  long,  it  is  to  be 
feared,  we  must  "gnaw  at  this  slave's  chain,"  and  pray  to 
God  for  deliverance  from  ignorance  and  barbarism,  before 
what  we  wear,  and  how  we  wear  it,  shall  be  arranged  by 
science,  reason,  taste,  and  health  and  comeliness  shall  appear 
as  the  shining  consummations  of  the  achievements  of  the  soul, 
and  "  Use  be  the  suggestor  of  Beauty." 


WHAT   WE   DO,  AND   HOW   WE   DO   IT. 

This  must  embrace  the  hygiene  of  work,  the  whole  chap- 
ter of  exercise,  physiological,  pathological,  or  the  work,  the 
calling,  how  we  do  it.  This  will  suggest  the  law  of  work 
for  the  life  of  the  organ,  and  also  the  lesson;  that  is,  never 
to  use  a  defective  bolt  or  screw  ;  never  work  with  an  imper- 
fect implement ;  never  tax  a  diseased  organ,  or  overwork 
an  organ  threatened  with  disease.  The  reason  is  obvious 
without  a  dissertation.  The  power  of  work  to  prevent  dis- 
ease is  almost  limitless.  And  here  the  gymnastics  of  human 
industry  take  their  attitudes  as  life  preservers  by  a  divine 
polarity.  "We  are  created  by  the  craft  of  nature  to  be  our- 


IIYGEIA.  561 

selves  workers,  by  Him  whom  nature  clothes,  vails,  and 
manifests,  to  be  workers.  To  work,  to  do,  loas  that  for  which 
ive  were  called  forth  to  be."  Cease  to  dream,  0  man! 
thou  gorgeous  loafer,  of  celestial  lubber-lands  where  eternity 
shall  be  dozed  away  with  cigars,  and  nothing  to  do.* 

On  the  specially  preventive  and  curative  powers  of  particu- 
lar kinds  of  work  over  special  states  and  individual  organs, 
much  has  been  suggested,  and  an  essay  of  the  most  signifi- 
cant import  might  be  written  from  facts  already  on  record, 
in  connection  with  the  physiology  of  organs,  on  the  prophy- 
lactics and  therapeutics  of  exercise.  Estimate  by  critical 
analyses  the  life-giving  processes  of  ploughing  and  sowing, 
digging  and  delving,  wood-chopping  and  fence  building, 
with  the  ambrosial  recreation  of  making  hay,  together  with 
the  useful  mechanical  arts  that  are  making  the  earth  comfort- 
able, and  civilized  life  endurable,  and  see  the  result.  Then, 
there  is  wonderful  virtue  in  the  walk,  the  great  voluntary 
act  of  locomotion ;  man,  the  sublime,  with  upturning  im- 
mortal eyes,  CcatOpuofpty)  moving  in  the  erect  attitude.  Is 
there  not  sanitary  significance  in  the  dreamy  stroll  of  the 
philosopher  and  poet,  the  soul  erect  also,  and  walking  in 
thought ;  in  the  enchanting  excursion  of  the  botanist  col- 
lecting plants,  and  the  "tug  and  tussle"  of  the  geologist, 
hammer  in  hand,  climbing  and  dissecting  his  mountains  ?  Of 
the  exercise  and  gymnastic  virtues  of  swimming,  too  high  a 
commendation  cannot  be  given ;  it  is  bold  work  and  purify- 
ing ablution  combined.  Are  there  not  positive  and  absolute 
powers  in  the  hunt,  man's  return  again  to  the  original  game 
of  life  and  death,  with  the  animal  kingdom  about  him? 

Long  have  the  refreshing  and  life-renewing  influences  of  the 
fishing,  or  piscatorial  art,  been  celebrated  and  sung;  and  Izaak 
Walton  was  a  poet,  and  a  prophet  of  health.  Then  we  are 
presented  with  the  great  passive  forms  of  exercise — the  sail, 
the  drive,  the  horseback  ride.  In  horseback  traveling  is 
achieved  the  highest  results  of  passive  motion,  the  last 
issues  of  jactitation,  or  churning  of  viscera,  of  pounding 

*  Idleness  is  the  largest  gate  of  perdition  now  open. 


562  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

and  friction  of  cavities  and  their  contents,  with  passivity  of 
voluntary  muscles,  and  the  simple  fillip  of  concussion  and 
vibration,  or  exercise  of  whole  body  without  use,  or  active 
drill  of  organs  in  a  state  of  threatened,  or  actual,  disease. 
On  this  account  horseback  exercise  has  had  many  advocates 
in  the  medical  profession,  in  diseases  of  the  lungs,  digestive 
organs,  nervous  system,  etc.  Thus,  from  stern  labor  of  loins 
and  wrists  in  the  battle  of  life,  to  the  walk,  or  sail,  or  horse- 
back or  carriage  ride  of  the  weakened  valetudinarian,  the 
preventive  power  of  work,  or  exercise,  over  disease,  also  the 
curative  power  in  disease,  are  almost  without  bounds. 

On  the  side  of  the  soul,  or  order  of  moral  and  spiritual 
influences,  as  hygienic  forces,  there  is  a  world  of  great  re- 
sources. 

This  closes  both  segments  of  the  circle  man,  on  the  ques- 
tion of  preventing  disease,  and  brings  into  play  all  the  sur- 
roundings of  the  human  being,  and  hence  common,  familiar 
things,  everyday  and  hour's  experiences,  gastronomies,  bodily 
habitudes,  manners  and  customs,  work,  philosophy,  aesthetics, 
and  morals,  confirm  the  great  announcement  to  the  body 
and  soul,  that  physiological  and  pathological  laws  preach 
the  gospel  of  the  ten  commandments,  and  the  doctrines  of 
Hygeia,  the  goddess  of  health.  As  she  represents  but  one 
attribute  of  the  divinity  who  presides  over  the  whole  do- 
main of  the  healing  art,  the  extent  of  the  resources  of  that 
art  may  be  inferred  from  the  representations  just  made,  and  so 
it  comes  that  all  nature  stands  as  waiting-maid  to  the  great 
god  who  is  a  "  personification  of  all  the  healing  powers  of 
the  world." 

It  seems,  from  this  critical  rendering  of  the  beautiful 
evangel  of  prevention,  that  the  mere  mending  and  patch- 
ing-up  business,  the  cobbling  and  darning  of  humanity,  when 
torn  and  defective,  not  to  speak  of  the  operation  of  chunk- 
ing and  daubing  the  walls  of  the  "house  we  live  in,"  when 
worn  and  dilapidated,  are  not  the  only  end  and  function  of 
the  "medical  art,"  narrowly  limited  to  the  physician  ad- 
ministering drugs.  Undoubtedly  it  is  a  great  and  wonder- 


HYGBIA.  563 

ful  thing,  allied  to  the  labors  of  the  gods,  to  cure  a  disease, 
(that  is,  of  course,  to  lend  a  help  to  nature,  which  she  could 
not  do  without,)  and  to  stoop,  with  the  power  of  an  angel's 
wing,  to  snatch  a  perishing  mortal  from  the  grave.  And 
here  it  occurs  to  the  reflecting  mind,  that  if  the  making  of 
man  was  to  God  the  infinite,  the  crowning  of  his  creation, 
the  finishing  of  his  work,  and  the  perfection  of  his  glory, 
surely  the  saving  from  destruction  of  his  "  heaven-labored 
form,  erect,  divine,"  is  the  crowning  of  all  human  art,  and 
stands  the  perfection  and  splendor  of  all  man  the  finite's 
creations  or  works.  It  appears,  then,  that  while  it  is  ob- 
vious that  the  prevention  of  disease  is  one  of  the  highest 
and  noblest  efforts  of  man, — the  curing  of  a  disease  already 
in  existence,  the  saving  from  pain  and  death,  and  the  resur- 
rection, as  it  were,  of  the  body  from  the  grave,  is  certainly 
the  grandest  revelation  of  human  power,  and  that  art  the 
most  exalted  of  all  arts.  Wonderful  is  it  that  the  spirit 
and  far-reaching  prophecy  of  the  classical  myth  has  be- 
come a  revelation  of  truth  in  the  sanitary  department 
of  this  mundane  sphere,  and  the  god  of  medicine  stands 
arrayed  in  the  full  grandeur  of  his  attributes  and  proper 
function,  namely,  the  publication  of  the  life  of  man  free 
from  disease  and  infirmity  in  all  its  terrestrial  relations, 
with  the  possibility  of  patriarchal  longevity  and  soundness  ; 
while  the  mild  maid,  with  flowing  robes,  representing  "  one 
of  his  attributes,"  that  of  preserving  health  when  given  by 
a  higher  power,  and  guarding  with  care  the  restored  sick,  or 
essaying  to  prevent  the  calamities  which  only  her  sire,  the 
great  god  ^Esculapius  himself,  can  certainly  avert,  must  for- 
ever lean  upon  her  beneficent  parent.  To  prevent  disease, 
if  possible,  is  blessed  and  great,  but  to  cure  it,  when  in  ex- 
istence, is  heavenly  and  divine. 

Hand  in  hand  stand  the  elements  of  the  great  science  of 
man,  Anatomy,  Physiology,  Pathology,  Hygiene,  not  sepa- 
rate sciences,  (at  the  bedside  of  the  diseased  sufferer  SURELY 
not  separate,)  not  dissevered  members,  not  merely  "subor- 
dinate" or  "ancillary,"  not  simply  "auxiliary,"  not  "en- 


584  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

tirely  initial"  to  each  other,  but  as  pillars  of  one  great 
temple,  parts  of  one  grand  whole,  over  which  presides  that 
unity  of  design,  that  oneness  of  spirit  which  is  the  mind  and 
majesty  of  the  world. 


(NOTE  TO  PAGE  555,  AT  *) 

The  education  of  the  stomach  is  one  of  the  great  accomplishments 
of  the  civic  state.  'Tis  not  the  brain,  but  stomach,  that  represents 
thee  truly,  multifarious  man !  In  the  hot-bed  of  metropolitan  life, 
behold  how  faithfully,  hand  in  hand,  go  the  graces  with  the  fell  dis- 
graces ;  how  quickly  luxury  and  vice  dethrone  the  soul,  and  sin 
"  that  high  face  defaces  !" 


(NOTE  TO  PAGE  555,  AT  f) 

In  the  Philadelphia  edition,  published  by  J.  B.  Lippincott  &  Co  , 
1859,  of  Dr  Moorman's  "Virginia  Springs,"  there  is  a  note,  page 
209,  referring  to  a  quotation  made  from  a  former  edition  of  his 
work,  in  The  Mountain,  page  161.  This  quotation  is  verbatim,  and, 
for  the  satisfaction  of  any  hope  inspired  by  it,  the  consumptive 
reader  was  simply  referred  to  Dr.  Moorman's  book  for  anything  it 
might  contain  on  the  "cure  of  confirmed  consumption." 

That  quotation  is  certainly  an  indorsement,  to  a  certain  extent,  of 
the  fact  advanced,  "confirmed  consumption"  being  included  in  the  list 
of  diseases  for  the  cure  of  which  one  of  the  waters  he  describes  had 
"peculiar  and  distinguished  reputation."  In  the  second,  or  Richmond 
edition,  we  find  the  following  words,  page  153,  which  are  republished 
in  the  Philadelphia  edition,  page  208:  "  The  peculiar  and  distinguish- 
ing reputation  of  this  water  (lied  Sulphur  Springs)  as  a  medical  agent, 
is  for  diseases  of  the  thoracic  viscera,  and,  by  some  it  has  been  con- 
sidered remedial  in  confirmed  tubercular  consumption.  Without  affirm- 
ing or  controverting  this  high  claim  for  the  water  as  a  remedy  in 
confirmed  consumption,  our  observations,"  etc.  etc.  The  following 
is  the  note  referred  to  in  the  Philadelphia  edition  of  Dr.  Moorman's 
book:  "In  a  work  [he  should  have  said  the  first  part  of  a  work] 
just  issued  from  the  Philadelphia  press,  entitled  The  Mountain,  our 
volume  is  referred  to  as  showing  that  this  water  cures  confirmed  con- 
sumption. We  need  scarcely  say  to  our  careful  readers  that  it  is  a 
mistake  to  ascribe  such  an  opinion  to  us ;  and  that  we  never  held 


HYGEIA.  565 

or  taught  that  this  or  any  other  sulphur  water  should  be  regarded 
as  curing  that,  as  we  believe,  incurable  affection.  We  are  satisfied 
that  the  error  on  the  part  of  th^  author  of  The  Mountain  was 
entirely  unintentional."  It  appears  that  Dr.  Moorman  "believes  con- 
sumption an  incurable  affection,"  and  yet  will  not  affirm  or  CONTRO- 
VERT the  high  claims  of  one  of  his  waters  as  a  remedy  in  that  disease. 
The  above  note  is  a  most  emphatic  CONTROVERSION  of  the  "high 
claim  for  the  water;"  but  it  must  be  apparent  to  the  "careful  reader," 
from  an  inspection  of  the  quotation,  that  the  "mistake,"  or  "error," 
of  the  author  of  The  Mountain,  although  "entirely  unintentional,"  is 
not  so  obvious  after  all.  Entertaining  the  highest  respect  for  Dr. 
Moorman,  and  faith  in  his  orthodoxy,  also  having  much  admiration 
for  the  zeal  he  has  shown  in  laboring  for  the  springs  of  Virginia  for 
twenty-three  years,  nothing  at  all  derogatory  was  intended  in  the 
Mountain's  reference  to  his  work.  Might  not  the  "controverting" 
have  been  in  the  text  as  well  as  in  a  note,  and  his  "belief  that  the 
affection  was  incurable""  been  "affirmed"  there  also,  as  well  as  in  a 
mere  marginal  reference?  The  unwillingness  to  "affirm  or  contro- 
vert" the  claims  of  a  certain  water  as  a  "remedy  for  confirmed" 
consumption  is  followed  by  the  direct  "  affirmation"  of  his  belief  that 
it  is  an  "incurable  affection"  So  now,  in  justice,  we  will  only  say 
on  the  subject  of  this  water  "curing  confirmed  consumption,"  do  not 
see  Moorman. 


48 


ANTAEUS  THE  GIANT. 


Antaeus  (' Av-atoq)  was  a  son  of  Poseidon  and  Ge,  a  mighty  giant 
and  wrestler  in  Libya,  whose  strength  was  invincible  so  long  as  he  re- 
mained in  contact  with  his  mother  earth.  The  strangers  who  came 
to  his  country  were  compelled  to  wrestle  with  him  ;  the  conquered 
were  slain,  and  out  of  their  skulls  he  built  a  house  to  Poseidon. 
Heracles  discovered  the  source  of  his  strength,  lifted  him  up  from 
the  earth,  and  crushed  him  in  the  air.  (Apollod.,  ii.  5,  §  11 ;  Hygin. 
Fab.,  31 ;  Diod.,  iv.  17;  Pind.,  Isthm..  iv.  87,  etc.;  Lucan,  Pharsal., 
iv.  590,  etc.;  Juven.,  iii.  89;  Ov.,  76.,  397.)  The  tomb  of  Antaeus, 
(Antaei  collis,)  which  formed  a  moderate  hill  in  the  shape  of  a  man 
stretched  out  at  full  length,  was  shown  near  the  town  of  Tingis,  in 
Mauretania,  down  to  a  late  period,  (Strab.,  xvii.  p.  829 ;  P.  Mela,  iii. 
10,  $  35,  etc.,)  and  it  was  believed  that  whenever  a  portion  of  the 
earth  covering  it  was  taken  away,  it  rained  until  the  hole  was  filled 
up  again.  Sertorius  is  said  to  have  opened  the  grave,  but  when  he 
found  the  skeleton  of  sixty  cubits  in  length,  he  was  struck  with 
horror,  and  had  it  covered  again  immediately.  (Strab.,  I.  c.;  Plut., 
Sertor.,  9.) — Greek  and  Roman  Biography  and  Mythology.  [L.  S.] 


"Man  is  the  summit,  the  crown  of  Nature's  development,  and 
must  comprehend  everything  that  has  preceded  him,  even  as  the 
fruit  included  within  itself  all  the  earlier  developed  parts  of  the 
plant.  In  a  word,  Man  must  represent  the  whole  world  in  minia- 
ture. 

"The  universal  spirit  is  Man.  In  the  human  race  the  world  has 
become  individual.  Man  is  the  entire  image  or  likeness  of  the  world. 
His  language  is  the  spirit  of  the  world.  All  the  functions  of  animals 
have  attained  unto  unity,  unto  self-consciousness,  in  Man." 

PHYSIOPHILOSOPHT. 
568 


"Man,  without  doubt,  is  the  highest  link,  the  crown  of  the  visi- 
ble creation ;  the  last,  the  most  finished  production  of  the  plastic 
power  of  Nature ;  the  highest  degree  of  its  self-representation  which 
our  eyes  are  capable  of  seeing,  our  senses  of  comprehending.  With 
him  our  sublunary  prospect  is  closed ;  he  is  the  extreme  point  with 
which  and  in  which  the  sensible  world  borders  on  a  higher  spiritual 
world.  The  organization  of  man  is,  as  it  were,  a  magic  band,  by 
which  two  worlds  of  a  totally  different  nature  are  connected  and  con- 
joined; an  eternally  incomprehensible  wonder,  by  which  he  becomes, 
at  the  same  time,  an  inhabitant  of  these  two  worlds,  the  material 
and  the  intellectual. 

"One  may,  with  propriety,  consider  man  as  a  compendium  of 
Nature ;  as  a  master-piece  of  conformation,  in  which  all  the  active 
powers  scattered  throughout  the  rest  of  nature,  all  kinds  of  organs 
and  forms  of  life,  are  united  in  one  whole,  act  in  concert,  and,  by 
these  means,  make  him,  in  the  strictest  sense,  a  little  world ;  a  copy 
and  epitome  of  the  greater,  as  he  was  so  often  called  by  the  ancient 
philosophers. 

"  His  life  is  the  most  expanded ;  his  organization  the  most  delicate 
and  best  finished ;  his  juices  and  component  parts  the  most  ennobled 
and  best  prepared ;  and  his  intensive  life  and  self-consumption  are, 
therefore,  the  strongest.  He  has,  consequently,  more  points  of  con- 
tact with  the  whole  of  nature  by  which  he  is  surrounded,  and  likewise 
more  wants  ;  but  he  has,  also,  a  richer  and  more  perfect  restoration 
than  any  other  being. 

"The  inanimate  mechanical  and  chemical  powers  of  nature;  the 
organic  or  living  powers  ;  and  that  spark  of  divine  power,  the  power 
of  thought,  are  here  united  and  blended  together  in  the  most  won- 
derful manner,  to  form  that  godlike  phenomenon  which  we  call  the 
life  of  man." 

HUFELAND. 


48*  569 


BOOK    III. 

ANTAEUS  THE  GMT, 
CHAPTER  I. 

"Man  is  all  symmetry, 

Full  of  proportions,  one  limb  to  another, 
And  all  to  all  the  world  besides. 

Each  part  may  call  the  farthest  brother : 
For  head  with  foot  hath  private  amity ; 

And  both,  with  moons  and  tides."— HERBERT. 

THUS  sing  the  birds  of  the  heavens,  and  some  "  old  poet's 
grand  imagination  is  imposed  on  us  as  adamantine  and 
everlasting  truth,  and  God's  own  word  !"  Is  it  the  man  of 
history,  the  man  of  the  past,  wrapped  in  the  inarticulate 
mutterings  of  fable,  the  man  of  the  present  hour,  inten- 
sated,  pungent,  and  wickedly  real,  or  the  man  of  the  future, 
the  ripened  fruit  of  the  ages,  the  possibly  perfect  man, 
who,  like  the  man  of  the  past,  is  "  made  of  such  stuff  as 
dreams  are  made  of,"  that  the  poets  have  thus  embalmed  in 
the  "amber  of  song?" 

Surely  they  do  not  describe  with  artistic  accuracy  the 
skulking  scavenger  that  now  infests  this  planet, — the  mourn- 
ful victim  of  disease  and  pain  that  now  ghosts  it  through 
the  world,  with  heart  devoured  by  the  cares  of  a  sensual 
life,  with  a  brain  seethed  by  the  fires  of  excitements  that 
never  die,  and  a  stomach  which  is  a  ghastly  museum  of  all 
the  eccentric  and  heterogeneous  forms  of  matter  in  exist- 
ence, for  "  nothing  has  got  so  far,  but  man  hath  caught  and 
kept  it  as  his  prey."  With  this  stomach,  which  the  last 
570 


ANTAEUS   THE   GIANT.  571 

revelations  of  science  declare  to  be  omnivorous,  and  "  or- 
gans of  reproduction  that  take  hold  on  eternity,"  and  each 
part  calling  the  farthest  brother,  what  poet  has  yet  sung  him 
truly  ?  Another  bard  by  the  wayside  has  a  different  lay : — 

"But  man  crouches  and  blushes, 

Absconds  and  conceals  ; 
He  creepeth  and  peepeth, 

He  palters  and  steals  ; 
Infirm,  melancholy, 

Jealous  glancing  around, 
An  oaf,  an  accomplice, 

He  poisons  the  ground." 

Can  this  be  the  "man,"  "all  symmetry,  full  of  proportions, 
one  limb  to  another,  and  all  to  all  the  world  besides  ?"  Why 
is  he  now  dethroned  and  debauched,  his  light  of  mind  dark- 
ened, while  his  body  wallows  supinely  in  the  mire  of  the  earth  ? 
They  say  the  "  foundations  of  man  are  not  in  matter,  but 
in  spirit,"  and  that  the  "element  of  spirit  is  eternity;" 
that  "the  universal  spirit  is  man,"  and  call  him  "Little 
World."  A  deeper  and  more  ingenuous  criticism  of  the 
man  of  this  time  is,  that  he  has  failed  and  fallen,  and  con- 
tinues perpetually  to  fail  and  to  fall ;  that  he  has  sunk  from 
the  exalted  stature  of  demigods  and  Providential  men  whom 
history  delights  to  make  and  to  honor,  and  that  his  ancient 
garments  fit  him  not.  They  even  say  his  antique  portrait  so 
illy  resembles  him  now,  that  he  calls  it  fable,  and  believes, 
and  solemnly  affirms  it  to  be  supernatural,  for  so  only 
are  the  gods.  Now  he  is  shrunk  almost  to  annihilation, 
and  approaches  the  confines  of  that  abyss  of  gloom,  total 
depravity.  "  The  ground  supports  him  in  vain,  and  his  feet 
kill  his  purpose ;  herbs  feed  him,  and  beasts  clothe  him  for 
disgrace ;  his  frame  puts  costliest  energy  into  play  to  be 
manufactured  into  sloth,  and  his  soul  hovers,  uninhabiting, 
over  his  slime.  This  is  the  final  shape  of  unhappiness,  the 
lot  of  apoplexed  men  and  societies,  whose  curse  it  becomes 
that  they  are  lashed  to  the  halberds  of  use,  upside  down, 
which  cleaves  with  poison  to  their  human  forms.  For  the 


572  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

human  form  is  the  divinity  either  of  Nemesis,  or  of  God." 
Can  this  be  him  of  whom  the  mystical  winds  of  the  ages 
whisper  so  grandly  ?  History  mutters  his  story  with  a  genu- 
flection, and  points  with  awe-struck  hand  to  the  heights  of 
Sinai,  where  he  met  the  supernals  in  manly  communion,  and 
his  days  were  not  like  the  "flower  and  the  grass,  which 
springeth  up  in  the  morning  and  are  cut  down  in  the  evening 
time."  Once  he  "strode  the  earth  like  a  Colossus."  Yene- 
rable  legends  come  down  to  us  from  primeval  worlds,  that  he 
erst  communed  with  the  Infinite,  and,  in  the  divine  circle  of 
charms  of  his  beautiful  mother,  Nature,  was  held  entranced 
for  a  thousand  years  ;  that  he  carried  the  fires  of  life  in  that 
charmed  alembic  of  a  body  of  his  for  ages,  the  angel  of  death 
having  almost  forgotten  that  his  title  to  its  possession  in  per- 
petuity was  not  valid.  "  For  all  the  days  of  Methuselah  were 
nine  hundred  and  sixty  and  nine  years,  and  he  died."  Why 
should  the  welling-up  of  those  deep  founts  of  physical  im- 
mortality ever  have  ceased,  and  man  become  the  mushroom 
of  an  hour  ?  With  an  absolute  balance  of  forces,  mechani- 
cal and  chemical,  ponderable  and  imponderable,  why  should 
not  his  body  be  as  the  Sequoia-tree  of  three  thousand  years 
existence,  which  is  a  mere  bottling  of  earth  and  gas  ?  With 
a  perfect  organization,  "with  head  and  foot  in  private  amity, 
and  both  with  moons  and  tides,"  why  should  not  life  be 
longer,  and  man  wander  the  earth  a  glorified  and  immortal 
being,  and  not  be  forced  to  pass  into  the  eternal  state  by  an 
agonized  awakening  as  from  a  troubled  dream  ? 

"Nothing  that  is  good  can  die; 
Souls,  that  of  His  good  life  partake, 
He  loves  as  his  own  self;  dear  as  his  eye 
They  are  to  him ;  he'll  never  them  forsake. 
When  they  shall  die, — then  God  himself  shall  die : 
They  live,  they  live  in  blest  eternity." 

Why  death  should  ever  have  arrived  in  those  happy  patri- 
archal days  is  a  subject  of  continued  surprise  to  the  philo- 
sophic mind.  But  they  say,  also,  that  if  it  had  not  been  for 


ANTAEUS   THE   GIANT.  573 

his  fascinating  and  seductive  brother  sin,  who  prepared  the 
way,  that  man  could  surely  have  laughed  at  his  dart  and 
scythe,  and  defied  them  both.  Sad  is  his  fate  now,  born  out 
of  time.  Like  a  mournful  and  solitary  traveler  he  gropes 
his  way  through  this  valley  and  shadow  of  a  youthful  and 
premature  death.  The  inexorable  curse  of  threescore  and 
ten  now  holds  him  by  the  hair,  and  irremediably  reaps  him 
home  to  the  harvest  of  everlasting  rest.  The  flames  of  that 
ancient  and  divine  fire  have  long  since  died  out  of  human 
clay ;  for  very  few  men  possess,  in  these  degenerate  days, 
half  the  vitality  of  Methuselah,  or  at  all  contemplate  re- 
maining upon  earth  a  thousand  years',  or  seriously  think  of 
perpetuating  their  species*  at  the  good  old  age  in  which  it 
seems  that  venerable  patriarch  was  in  the  full  vigor  of  his 
youth.  "For  Methuselah  lived  after  he  begat  Lamech 
seven  hundred  and  eighty  and  two  years,  and  THEN  begat 
sons  and  daughters."  Science  and  philosophy  will  hang 
long  and  sadly  over  this  problem  of  the  ages,  (on  the  ques- 
tion of  the  dead  letter  alone,)  and  regret  that  a  chapter  of 
dietetics  was  not  also  written  to  accompany  and  somewhat 
explain  the  chapter  of  "  begats."  Were  the  stomachs  of  men 

*  Something  after  the  style  and  power  of  the  venerable  Methuse- 
lah has  occurred  in  modern  days,  thus  giving  hope  to  those  ancient 
gentlemen  of  the  present  hour  who  are  in  the  horrors  of  the  rapidly 
approaching  period  called  grand  climacteric.  "A  certain  Baron  Bara- 
vicino  de  Capellis  died  in  1770,  at  Meran,  in  Tyrol,  at  the  age  of  104. 
He  had  been  married  to  four  wives :  the  first  he  married  in  his  four- 
teenth, and  the  last  in  his  eighty-fourth  year.  By  his  fourth  wife  he 
had  seven  children,  and  when  he  died  (at  104!)  she  was  pregnant 
with  the  eighth.  The  vigor  of  his  body  and  mind  did  not  forsake 
him  till  the  last  months  of  his  life.  He  never  used  spectacles,  and, 
when  at  a  great  age,  would  walk  frequently  a  couple  of  miles.  His 
usual  food  was  eggs  ;  he  never  tasted  boiled  flesh ;  sometimes  he  ate 
a  little  roasted,  but  always  in  very  small  quantities ;  and  he  drank 
abundance  of  tea  with  rosa-solis  and  sugar-camty." 

Another  example :  "A  Frenchman,  named  De  Longueville,  lived  to 
the  age  of  110.  He  had  been  married  to  ten  wives ;  his  last  wife  he 
married  when  in  his  ninety-ninth  year,  and  she  bore  him  a  son  Avhen 
he  was  in  his  hundred  and  first." — HUFELAND. 


574  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

in  those  days  made  as  they  are  now,  with  three,  four,  or  five 
coats  ?*  and  were  they  supplied  with  the  same  arrangement  of 
fountains  of  gastric  solvents  which  they  reveal  to  the  patient 
eye  of  the  naturalist,  in  these  profane  days  of  scalpels  and  mi- 
croscopes ?  Was  the  bread  of  the  primal  fathers  perpetually 
sweet ;  were  their  steaks  constantly  well  cooked ;  were  they 
habitual  drinkers  or  cold  water  men;  and  had  they  books 
written  on  " protracted  indigestion?"  Here  are  quarries  to 
dig  in,  and  the  devoted  sage  may  gaze  into  the  dim  distance 
long  and  ardently,  before  the  anatomy  and  physiology  of  the 
stomach  and  loins  of  that  wonderful  man  Methuselah  shall 
be  clearly  made  out,'  and  scientifically  arranged  with  pic- 
torial illustrations,  for  the  edification  of  school-boys.  Shall 
a  truer  philosophy  and  a  more  profound  science  yet  explain 
the  longevity  of  the  patriarchs,  and  restore  the  purple  light 
of  this  early  dawn  of  the  world,  whose  story  comes  to  us 
embalmed  in  heavenly  fragrance  ?  Does  deep  wisdom  lie 
concealed  in  the  sacred  myths  of  departed  races  ?  Is  the 
letter  of  their  legend  absolute  fact,  or  fable,  flesh  and  blood 
verity,  or  symbolical  shadow  ?  The  history  of  the  immortal 
youth  of  the  primeval  man,  the  story  of  his  soundness  and 
strength,  his  happiness  and  purity,  does  not  belong  exclu- 
sively to  the  wondrous  race  of  prophets  and  poets. 

The  constant  presence  of  these  traditions  in  the  early  life 
of  all  nations  is  a  most  significant  fact.  For  all  the  tribes 
of  men  have  had  dreams  and  fables  of  golden  ages  de- 
parted, of  paradises  they  had  somehow  lost,  of  falls  from 
higher  and  better  worlds.  They  have  all  inherited  sad  and 
mournful  legends  of  regions  of  purity  and  bliss  from  which 
ruthless  and  tyrannical  powers  had  driven  them,  days  of  in- 
nocence and  joy,  whose  light  and  glory  had  forever  departed. 
These  stories  of  heaven,  these  visions  and  dreams  of  the 
celestial,  are  shadowed  forth  in  the  dim  dawn  of  the  world 
in  all  religions,  in  all  poetries.  They  are  the  first  spring 

*  Malpighi  divided  the  stomach  into  three  coats,  \Vinslow  into 
four,  and  Heister  into  five. 


ANTAEUS   THE   GIANT.  575 

flowers  of  man's  heart  and  brain  ;  they  are  the  first  stretch- 
ing forth  of  his  baby  hand  toward  the  sceptre  of  the  spiritual 
kingship  of  this  world  ;  they  are  the  first  auroral  glimmer- 
ings of  his  intellect  gilding  the  distant  mountain-tops  of 
the  past,  and  flinging  around  the  earth  a  wreath  of  sacred 
lustres,  giving  life,  blood,  and  aroma  to  all  primeval  his- 
tories. Why  do  men  hang  with  such  worship  and  venera- 
tion upon  these  hoary  chronicles,  stories  of  glories  departed, 
of  gardens  of  blessedness  passed  away,  with  only  prophecies 
of  heavens  to  come,  postponed  until  their  arrival  in  other 
worlds  ?  The  poverty  and  sorrow  of  the  dwarfish  actual 
perpetually  present  to  them,  pressing  with  pain  upon  eye, 
heart,  and  brain,  give  a  sad  and  tender  earnest  to  these 
seductive  romances  which  imagination,  with  retrospective 
vision,  delights  to  place  in  the  past.  Unsatisfied  and  crushed 
with  the  present,  the  toils  of  this  Egypt  of  the  REAL  have 
only  sadness  for  them,  and  a  longing  to  wander  to  the  ideal 
of  some  happy  and  blissful  Canaan  haunts  them  forever.  This 
dim  instinct,  this  dumb  prayer  of  the  soul  has  its  origin  in 
reason  and  nature.  For  now  if  man  be  really  "  an  angel  in 
disguise,"  and  scarcely  "less  than  archangel  ruined,"  it  may 
be  but  the  memory  of  "joys  he  has  tasted,"  or  "the  light  of 
other  days,"  and  the  hallowed  recollections  of  the  past,  which 
shape  themselves  from  his  inarticulate  sorrow  into  the  forms 
of  a  Garden  of  Eden  closed,  a  Paradise  lost,  a  holiness  that 
knew  no  sin,  with  a  fall  and  the  curse  of  death,  since  he  is 
held  constantly  by  longing  and  hope  of  regaining  his  immor- 
tal state ;  for  even  in  his  ruin  he  cannot  forget  his  Father's 
kingdom,  or  forego  the  hope  of  a  restoration  to  his  crown. 
"  The  earth  waits  for  her  king ;"  "the  world  prays  for  a  man 
to  be  born."  How  many  ardent  souls  long  for  that  wonderful 
second  coming !  Is  the  genius  and  majesty  of  man  an  im- 
palpable tradition  ?  Is  that  prophet's  garment  of  the  ages 
a  harlequin  mockery  ?  Is  sin  that  Himalaya  mountain  that 
rises  before  him  constantly ;  that  Upas  that  springs  at  his 
side  with  every  bleeding  footprint  ?  Are  the  dim  prophe- 
cies of  inspired  souls  delusive  dreams  ?  Must  the  ideal  man 


576  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

remain  ideal  ?  Is  the  present  possessor  of  the  planet  lost 
without  hope  of  salvation,  and  are  the  poet's  forebodings, 
the  seer's  visions,  figments  and  follies  ? 

Why  speak  of  the  flaming  sword  over  the  gate  of  that 
mournful  garden  of  Jehovah  ?  Why  talk  of  the  golden  age 
as  a  tradition?  Why  say  that  "Urim  and  Thummim  keep 
their  glory  hid  ?  that  our  days  must  be  dark,  and  our  nights 
must  be  visionless  ?"  Is  man  certainly  that  broken  giant ;  is 
he  really  that  fallen  splendor ;  is  he  surely  that  disconsolate 
Adam  whose  doom  it  is  to  wander  endlessly  over  a  world 
accursed,  with  only  a  tradition  of  the  happiness  of  a  past 
heaven  from  whose  aromatic  shades  he  has  been  extruded, 
and  the  remote  hope  of  the  joys  of  a  paradise  in  some 
future  world,  to  soothe  him  in  the  sorrows  of  this  ?  Will 
his  deep  sleep  of  sensuality  never  be  broken  ?  Will  the 
thick  night  hang  around  him  perpetually,  and  the  earth  turn 
its  darkened  side  to  him  in  his  lethargy  and  trance  of  death 
forever  ?  Has  science  struggled  for  six  thousand  years  in 
vain  to  sever  the  bars  of  this  prison  of  pain  and  suffering  in 
which  he  groans  ?  Is  he  destined  constantly  to  be  the  occu- 
pant of  his  diseased  body,  and  this  ball  of  rocks  they  call  the 
earth  to  roll  through  space  a  hospital  of  incurables  ?  These 
are  dogmas  of  that  fearful  fatalism  which  now  overshadows 
the  earth,  and  calls  in  a  special  Providence  who  is  author,  as 
separate  edicts  of  his  arbitrary  will,  of  all  the  ills  which  are 
the  consequence  of  man's  infraction  of  the  laws  of  his  or- 
ganization. These  are  the  doctrines  of  a  bitter  revenge, 
or  a  savage  retaliation,  incompatible  with  the  beautiful  and 
sublime  spirit  of  benevolence  and  love  that  shines  so  grandly 
throughout  every  part  of  the  world. 

As  disease  had  its  entrance  into  the  human  body  through 
sin,  must  it  really  have  its  exit  through  human  suffering  ?* 

*  "I  maintain  the  principle,  that  diseases  are  not  direct  visita- 
tions, but  almost  always  the  result  of  inattention  to  Nature's  teach- 
ing ;  and,  as  far  as  they  are  punishments  for  our  own  indiscretions 
or  vices,  should  act  as  warnings.  The  majority  of  diseases  are  pro- 
duced by  our  own  imprudence  or  ignorance ;  observation  of  the  laws 
of  health  would  enable  us  to  prevent  some  altogether,  to  modify 


ANTAEUS    THE    GIANT.  577 

Whole  libraries  are  made  of  books  that  scarcely  serve  to 
catalogue  man's  infirmities ;  temples  of  learning  are  erected, 
and  proud  professorships  are  endowed,  whose  whole  func- 
tion it  is  to  recite  the  bill-of-fare  for  the  angel  of  death,  and 
repeat  the  list  of  wines  of  the  grave.  The  best  medical 
treatise  has  been  styled  "a  Dissertation  upon  Death,"  and 
the  best  physician  a  "blind  man  with  a  club."  This  mourn- 
ful pessimism  is  a  cloud  of  that  gloomy  despondency  which 
characterizes  the  hour,  giving  a  science  without  faith  or 
worship,  a  philosophy  without  hope  or  holiness,  and  a  reli- 
gion without  love  or  charity.  But  "man's  misery  is  his  gran- 
deur in  disguise,  and  discontent  is  immortality." 

If  he  is  the  "entire  image  or  likeness  of  the  world,"  whence 
have  shrunk  the  rivers  of  his  life  ?  whence  have  withered 
away  his  verdant  savannas  ?  Why  do  salt  deserts  and  arid 
mountains  till  the  horizon?  Is  he  a  broken-hearted  god, 
mourning  with  infinite  grief  over  the  solitude  of  a  bank- 
rupt and  dead  Universe  ?  One  green  oasis  of  a  living  soul 
in  long  thousands  of  years,  one  spot  of  flowers  in  weary, 
endless  leagues,  and  he  rolls  a  pathless  waste  !  Is  the  world 
a  school-house  for  the  education  of  angels,  or  a  den  of  tor- 
ment for  the  excruciation  of  demons  ?  Many  of  the  dogmas 
of  fatalism  and  despair  of  the  past  make  it  a  howling  wil- 

otliers,  and  to  alleviate  the  effects  of  all.  Disease  is  much  more  fre- 
quently the  result  of  our  own  conduct  than  the  direct  infliction  of 
Providence,  the  necessary  result  of  climate,  or  other  external  in- 
fluence."— BE  ALE. 

Different  philosophers  have  given  different  origins  of  the  evil  called 
disease  :  first,  it  comes  from  man  himself  as  a  consequence  of  the  in- 
fraction of  the  laws  of  his  physical  and  moral  constitution ;  again, 
the  devil  has  been  made  the  inventor  of  disease;  or  the  genius  of  ac- 
cident has  been  supposed  to  preside  over  this  department ;  and  it  has 
also  been  impiously  suggested  that  God  himself  is  the  author  of  this, 
as  of  all  other  evil.  We  need  go  no  further  than  man,  and  the  won- 
derful laws  of  his  organization,  for  this  whole  list  of  horrors :  dis- 
eases are  the  invariable  consequents  of  the  violation  of  the  laws  of 
his  body,  the  laws  of  his  soul,  and  are  "schoolmasters'  rods"  for 
the  reformation  and  education  of  both  soul  and  body. 

49 


578  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

derness  of  barbarism,  a  Sahara  of  death.  Let  us  be  thank- 
ful that  the  oases  exist ;  that  brave  living  souls  have  been 
here,  are  here,  and  will  come  again ;  that  the  fight  with 
the  dragons  goes  on ;  that  the  pythons  of  the  past,  the 
saurians  of  the  ancient  slimes  of  the  soul,  still  extant,  must 
perish,  and  the  "new  man,"  and  the  "new  world,"  redeemed 
from  the  chaos  of  antagonistic  elements,  shall  be  indeed  the 
"  entire  image  and  likeness"  of  each  other.  Sorrowful  is  his 
present  attitude,  and  full  of  despair,  for  now  he  dwells  among 
dust,  shrouds,  and  grave-stones,  and  turns  from  the  living 
world,  which,  with  gentle,  kindly  invitations  and  smiles,  im- 
portunes him  to  explore,  to  interrogate,  to  grow,  promising 
incalulable  expansions  and  perfections  beyond  his  hopes.  Is 
he  sane  to  make  the  past  a  millstone  around  his  neck,  in- 
stead of  a  stepping-stone  under  his  feet  for  progress  into  the 
future  ?  Will  the  milk-founts  of  the  venerable  mother  never 
be  dry  ?  While  change  and  growth  are  written  upon  all 
things,  and  the  new  condition  asks  to  develop  the  new  man, 
and  the  expanding  future  invites  him  to  untried  manifesta- 
tions, and  with  infinite  hope  promises  that  "  all  things  shall 
be  added  to  that  kingdom,"  why  must  the  soul  still  cling  for 
nourishment  to  this  ancient  bosom,  and  seek  there  alone  for 
nourishment  where  all  is  withered  and  dry  ?  The  procession 
of  the  ages  has  called  forth  a  few  souls-  to  whom  the  past 
was  "the  dead  burying  the  dead,"  who  used  the  present  to 
work  in,  and  to  whom  the  future  offered  a  fresh  living  and 
promising  harvest.  Ignoring  the  past,  this  order  of  trans- 
cendent spirits  have  fixed  all  its  hopes  and  efforts  in  the 
future.  Vast,  prophetic  men,  the  only  real  lovers  of  the 
race,  with  souls  genial  and  expansive,  these  transcendent  be- 
ings, striding  whole  ages  before  the  rest  of  their  kind,  have 
always  either  located  their  heavens  in  other  worlds,  or  in 
i^Q  future  of  this.  With  instincts  of  finest  love,  with  hopes 
so  golden  in  their  riches,  with  faith  so  childlike  in  its  trust, 
and  a  self-reliance  so  divine  in  its  imperturbable  quiet,  these 
angelic  natures,  the  great  radical  reformers  of  humanity, 
have  held  their  eyes  on  the  future,  or  world  to  come,  with 


ANTAEUS   THE   GIANT.  579 

no  goal  but  the  infinite  heavens,  and  no  end  proposed  but  the 
final  assumption  of  the  splendors  of  deity.  Shall  the  words 
they  have  uttered,  the  thoughts  they  have  planted,  grow  till 
the  earth  is  filled  with  life  and  sweetness,  and  the  harmonious 
relationship  of  man  to  nature,  of  man  to  man,  and  of  man 
to  Deity,  be  no  longer  the  foreshadowing  of  blessedness  for 
the  illuminated  spirits  of  the  divine  few,  but  will  come  to  be 
the  common  inheritance  of  the  whole  race,  and  health  of 
body,  purity  of  heart  and  sentiment,  and  holiness  of  soul,  be 
the  law,  as  now  the  exception,  and  the  diseased,  vicious, 
and  insane  shall  no  longer  cumber  the  earth  ? 

Leaving  the  inspired  ones,  the  prophets  of  regeneration, 
and  their  dreams  of  salvation  for  man,  to  the  coming  ages 
to  arrange,  what  has  the  present  time  to  say  of  the  present 
man  ?  what  is  the  science  of  the  now-existing  representative 
of  the  venerable  "gardener  of  earth  uncorrupted  ?"  is  he 
plus,  minus,  or  zero  ?  is  he  fulfilling  the  divine  economy  or 
playing  the  devil?  At  the  rapid  gait  of  2'lf,  his  ideal  of 
progress,  he  has  rushed  into  the  possession  of  a  beautiful 
"heritage  of  woe,"  in  the  shape  of  a  catalogue  of  diseases 
amounting  to  several  thousand,  more  or  less,  among  which  are 
greasy  and  hypertrophied  liver,  (Dead  Sea  fruit  of  whisky  and 
heaven  of  alcoholic  diathesis,)  cancerous  and  ulcerated  stom- 
ach, (cachexy  and  gluttonous  abuse,)  effete  blood,  (result  of 
soggy  immobility  and  laziness,)  gouty  feet,  (celestial  harmony 
of  gastronomy,)  tuberculated  lungs,  (horrors  of  profane  gen- 
eration, bad  air,  and  defective  nutrition,)  lock-jaw,  (general 
spasmodic  clutch  of  dissolving  powers,)  and  hydrophobia, 
(commonest  affliction  of  Young  America,)  not  forgetting  the 
benevolent  Yankee  institutions  of  the  bowie  knife,  revolver, 
and  "improved  American  rifle,"  which,  in  nosological  and 
etiological  tables,  belong,  of  course,  to  the  causes  of  sudden 
and  violent  death.  Having  arrested  him  for  a  moment  under 
the  first  shade-tree  in  his  "desert  of  life,"  and  having  thor- 
oughly performed  his  ablutions  by  friction  with  sand,  as  per 
recipe  of  Koran,  let  us  interrogate  his  present  vital  connection 
with  the  great  benevolent  cow,  Nature,  his  cherishing  mother. 


580  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

What  are  his  relations  to  her  now  ?  A  lover  of  leeks  and  flesh- 
pots,  hurried  on  to  hideous  morbid  growths  in  hot-beds  of 
vice  and  luxury,  and  boiled  in  the  caldrons  of  towns  and 
cities,  has  his  back  been  so  long  turned  upon  God,  that  the 
flaming  sword  is  inexorably  fixed  between  him  and  the 
heaven  of  physical  soundness  ?  Can  he  never  enter  again 
the  Paradise  of  sound  digestion,  and  taste  the  sensuous  joys 
of  hilarious  youth  ?  Is  the  divine  crucible,  that  body  of  his, 
broken,  and  does  the  world,  with  mountains  of  the  golden 
ore  of  health  and  happiness,  gleam  in  mockery  around  him, 
torturing  to  phrenzy  ? 

The  first  critical  question,  the  truly  essential  problem,  is, 
has  the  human  race  actually  degenerated  physically*  in 
modern  times,  for,  morally  and  spiritually,  it  seems  to  be 
admitted,  that  it  has  wilted  and  withered  almost  to  death. 

"  For  many  centuries  past  we  have  had  numerous  writers 
and  preachers  on  the  moral  degeneracy  of  mankind,  and 
many  still  are  asserting,  on  spiritual  grounds,  the  increasing 
laxity  and  gradual  decline  of  morals,  and  the  growing  dis- 
regard of  strict  principles  of  religion  and  rectitude.  But  it 
must  strike  us  forcibly,  that  though  PHYSICAL  DEGENERACY 
has  also  been  making  equally  rapid  strides,  and  pro- 
gressed hand  and  hand  with  moral  decay,  it  was  not  until 
very  lately  that  those  who  are  the  properly  constituted 
guardians  of  health,  have  raised  their  voices,  or  taken  up 
their  pens,  to  arrest  its  progress.  That  this  degeneracy 
(physical)  actually  exists,  and  is  still  progressive,  is  not 
a  subject  of  controversy,  but  capable  of  easy  demonstra- 
tion. A.  glance  back  at  the  history  of  the  world,  and  the 
contrast  that  presents  itself  between  the  mental,  moral,  and 
physical  condition  of  society  in  ages  long  past,  and  its  con- 

*  "Two-fifths  of  all  who  are  born  die  under  five  years  of  age, 
the  remainder  all  die  prematurely, — a  fearful  mortality.  Half  die 
of  fevers  ;  one-fourth  of  consumption  and  scrofula  ;  the  rest  of  other 
diseases, — all  die  of  violence, — no  such  thing  known,  in  modern  days, 
as  natural  death,  a  death  from  mere  old  age.  But  is  not  the  length  of 
human  life  increasing  ?  It  was  so  till  recently ;  chronic  diseases  are 
multiplying,"  etc.  etc. — ALCOTT. 


ANTAEUS   THE   GIANT.  581 

dition  as  regards  these  relations  "now,  is  met  by  a  sudden  and 
humiliating  conviction  of  the  awful  dilapidation  that  has 
taken  place  in  the  social  fabric.  It  is  impossible  for  the 
present  age  is  .flatter  itself  into  the  contrary  opinion.  As 
the  accumulation  of  literature,  which  is  stored  up  in  the 
huge  intellectual  magazine  into  which  the  world  has  grown, 
and  the  multiplied  facilities  of  modern  education,  which  a 
long  experience  has  secured,  are  no  proofs  that  we  are  rela- 
tively increasing  in  strength  of  mind;  so  our  concentrated 
facilities  and  stupendous  triumphs  of  bodily  labor  are  no 
proofs  that  we  are  relatively  increasing  in  physical  energy. 
On  the  contrary,  when  we  look  back  with  an  impartial  eye 
on  the  severity  and  unbending  morality,  the  refinement  in 
taste  and  sentiment,  the  mental  and  physical  vigor,  so  com- 
mon among  the  ancient  Egyptians,  Athenians,  and  Romans, 
as  evinced  at  the  present  day,  in  monuments  that  have  de- 
fied the  wreck  of  time  and  the  vandalism  of  ages,  and  then 
make  allowances  for  our  advantages,  we  are  penetrated  with 
an  irresistible  .sense  of  relative  inferiority,  and  can  no 
longer  boast  of  our  march  of  intellect  and  our  splendid 
achievements.  Under  these  circumstances,  it  is  clearly  the 
duty  of  every  member  of  society  to  exert  any  influence  he 
may  happen  to  possess  to  avert  this  impending  calamity, 
and  if  he  have  a  mite  of  information  on  its  removable  causes, 
to  give  it  free  publicity."* 

The  comparative  longevity  of  the  ancients  and  moderns 
thus  becomes  a  question  of  vital  interest.  [Passing  the 
fables  of  primitive  giants,  we  come  to  the  recorded  word 
on  the  longevity  of  man,  and  Methuselah  and  Jared,  Noah 
and  Adam,  stand  the  great  plus  affirmations.  "Haller 
and  Buffon  both  admit  the  possibility  of  long  life  before 
the  deluge.  The  fact  admitted,  Buffon  hastens  to  explain 
it  by  a  system.  Haller  limits  himself  by  quoting  the  sys- 
tem of  Buffon  and  some  others.  We  are  acquainted  with 
the  system  of  Buffon.  Before  the  deluge,  the  earth  was 
less  solid  and  compact  than  at  present,  because  gravity  had 
*  Griscom,  "Uses  and  Abuses  of  Air." 
49* 


582  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

only  been  a  short  time  in  operation,  all  its  productions  had 
less  consistency.  Man's  body,  especially,  was  more  pliant, 
supple,  and  more  susceptible  of  extension ;  it  could  then 
grow  a  longer  time  ;  man  arrived  at  puberty  only  upon  at- 
taining one  hundred  and  thirty  years,  instead  of  fourteen. 
With  this,  other  things  are  reconciled,  for  in  multiplying 
these  two  numbers,  one  hundred  and  thirty  and  fourteen, 
by  the  same  number,  i.e.  seven,  'we  perceive,'  says  Buffon, 
'that  the  life  of  man  being  now-a-days  ninety-eight  years, 
it  must  then  have  been  nine  hundred  and  ten  years.'*  It 
is  singular  that  Buffon  here  states  this  view  seriously,  be- 
cause he  gives  it  as  his  own,  although  he  sneers  at  it  in 
Woodward,  from  whom  he  has  taken  #."f  Hufeland 
cleaves  the  knot  of  the  standing  joke  on  this  point,  namely, 
the  age  of  Methuselah,  by  adopting  the  views  of  Hensler. 
He  says :  "Acute  theologists  have  shown  that  the  chrono- 
logy of  the  early  ages  was  not  the  same  as  that  used  at 
present.  Some,  particularly  Hensler,  have  proved,  with  the 
highest  probability,  that  the  year,  till  the  time  of  Abraham, 
consisted  only  of  three  months ;  that  it  was  afterwards  ex- 
tended to  eight ;  and  that  it  was  not  till  the  time  of  Joseph 
that  it  was  made  to  consist  of  twelve.  These  assertions  are, 
in  a  certain  degree,  confirmed  by  some  of  the  Eastern  na- 
tions, who  still  reckon  only  three  months  to  a  year ;  and 
besides,  it  would  be  altogether  inexplicable  why  the  life  of 
man  should  have  been  shortened  one-half  immediately 
after  the  flood.  It  would  be  equally  inexplicable  why  the 
patriarchs  did  not  marry  till  their  sixtieth,  seventieth,  and 
even  hundredth  year ;  but  this  difficulty  vanishes  when  we 
reckon  these  ages  according  to  the  before-mentioned  stand- 
ard, which  will  give  the  twentieth  or  thirtieth  year ;  and 
consequently,  same  periods  at  which  people  marry  at  pre- 
sent. The  whole,  therefore,  according  to  this  explanation, 
assumes  a  different  appearance.  The  sixteen  hundred  years 
before  the  flood  will  become  four  hundred  and  fourteen  ;  and 
the  nine  hundred  years  (the  highest  recorded)  which  Methu- 

*  Vol.  xi.  p.  76.  f  Flourens,  ''Human  Longevity." 


ANTAEUS   THE   GIANT.  583 

selah  lived,  will  be  reduced  to  two  hundred,  an  age  which  is 
not  impossible,  and  to  which  some  men  in  modern  times 
have  nearly  approached."* 

So  Methuselah  appears  on  the  record,  not  as  a  fable, 
but  as  a  possible  and  actual  fact.  He  (Hufeland)  then  ad- 
duces the  facts  of  "  profane  history,  the  account  of  many 
heroes  and  Arcadian  kings  of  those  periods  who  attained  to 
the  age  of  several  hundred  years ;  but  these  pretended  in- 
stances of  longevity  can  be  explained  in  the  same  manner. 
With  the  period  of  Abraham,  a  period  when  history  seems 
first  to  be  established  on  more  certain  grounds,  we  find  men- 
tion of  a  duration  of  life  which  can  still  be  attained,  and 
which  no  longer  appears  extraordinary,  especially  when  we 
consider  the  temperate  manner  in  which  the  patriarchs  lived ; 
and  that  as  they  were  nomads,  or  a  wandering  people,  they 
were  much  exposed  to  the  FREE  OPEN  AiR."f 

He  then  recites  the  Hebrew  record.  Abraham,  a  "  man  of 
great  and  resolute  mind,  fortunate  in  all  his  undertakings," 
lived  175  years:  Isaac,  "a  chaste,  peaceable  man,  and  fond 
of  tranquillity,"  180;  Jacob,  "a  lover  of  peace,  crafty  and 
cunning,"  only  147;  "Ishmael,  a  warrior,  137;"  "Sarah, 
the  only  female  of  the  ancients  with  whose  duration  of  life 
we  are  acquainted,  lived  127  years;"  Joseph,  with  whose 
history  all  boys  are  acquainted,  lived  110  years;  Moses,  a 
"man  of  extraordinary  strength  and  spirit,"  but  a  murderer, 
weathered  it  120  years.  He  complained  of  the  shortness 
of  life,  as  everybody  does  now.  "  His  eye  was  not  dim,  nor 
his  natural  force  abated."  Joshua,  "  the  warlike  and  ac- 
tive," was  110;  while  "Eli,  the  high-priest,  a  corpulent, 
phlegmatic  man,  of  a  resigned  disposition,  lived  only  90 
years;"  and  Elisha,  the  austere,  attained  to  100;  whereas 
Simeon,  a  "  man  full  of  hope  and  confidence  in  God,"  survived 
only  90  years.  The  Egyptians,  notwithstanding  the  immor- 
tality of  the  pyramids,  were  not  extremely  long  livers,  "the 

*  Hufeland,  "Art  of  Prolonging  Life."    Many  quotations  are  made 
here  from  this  interesting  work. 
f  Hufeland. 


584  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

longest  reign  of  any  of  their  kings  being  50  years."  The 
Chinese  are  said  to  exist  forever,  (probably  fabulous !)  tea 
being  the  saving  principle.  The  Greek,  supposed  by  ethno- 
logists to  be  very  closely  allied  to  the  modern  gentleman, 
was  not  distinguished  for  longevity.  They  say  Epimenides 
of  Crete  lived  to  be  15T  ;  Democritus,  "the  friend  and 
searcher  of  nature,  a  man  also  of  good  temper  and  serene 
mind,"  109  ;  Georgias  of  Leontium,  orator,  traveler,  and 
teacher  of  the  young,  108  ;  Diogenes,  the  tub  man,  90 ; 
Zeno,  the  Stoic,  100;  Solon,  the  wise,  80;  Protagoras  of 
Abdera,  an  orator  and  traveler,  90 ;  Isocrates,  a  man  of 
great  temperance  and  MODESTY,  98  ;  Plato,  the  immortal, 
81;  and  Pythagoras,  to  be  "very  old."  This  philosopher, 
(Pythagoras,)  always  sound,  gives  us  a  fine  schedule  of  hu- 
man life.  He  used  to  divide  the  life  of  man  into  four  equal 
parts.  "  From  the  first  to  the  twentieth  year  he  called  him 
a  child,  a  man  begun  ;  from  the  twentieth  to  the  fortieth,  a 
young  man  ;  from  the  fortieth  to  the  sixtieth,  A  MAN  ;  from 
the  sixtieth  to  the  eightieth,  an  old,  or  declining  man  ;  and 
after  this  period  he  reckoned  him  no  more  among  the  liv- 
ing, let  him  live  to  whatever  age  he  might."* 

Among  the  Romans,  fast  livers,  the  instances  of  longevity 
are  not  numerous  or  extraordinary.  M.  Valerius  Corvinus, 
"  bold  and  courageous,  extremely  popular,  and  always  for- 
tunate," lived  over  100  years.  Orbilius,  the  pedagogue  and 
soldier,  made  his  100.  Hermippus,  "the  instructor  of  young 
maids,"  lived  long;  while  Fabius  the  slow,  and  Cato,  the 
"  man  with  iron  body  and  iron  mind,  fond  of  country  life,  and 
an  enemy  to  physicians,  each  lived  to  be  100."  Roman  ladies, 
it  appears  from  the  record,  often  lived  long.  "  Terentia,  the 
wife  of  Cicero,  notwithstanding  her  many  misfortunes,  cares, 
and  THE  GOUT,  with  which  she  was  tormented,  lived  to  the 
age  of  103  ;  and  Li  via,  the  wife  of  Augustus,  an  imperious 
and  passionate  woman,  lived  90  years."  Roman  actresses, 
it  seems,  lived  long ;  one  Luceja,  who  came  on  the  stage 
very  young,  performed  a  whole  century,  and  even  made  her 
*  "Xenophilus  lived  106  years,  and  Demonax  above  100." 


ANTAEUS   THE   GIANT.  585 

appearance  publicly  when  in  her  112th  year.  "  Galeria  Co- 
piola,  an  actress  and  dancer  also,  was  90  years  old  when 
she  first  performed  in  the  theatre;  and  she  was  again 
brought  foward  as  a  wonder,  in  order  to  compliment  Pom- 
pey.  But  even  this  was  not  the  last  time  of  her  acting ;  for 
she  appeared  once  more,  to  show  her  respect  for  Augustus." 

"A  very  valuable  collection  in  regard  to  the  duration  of 
human  life,  in  the  time  of  the  Emperor  Yespasian,  has  been 
preserved  by  Pliny  from  the  records  of  the  Census,  a  source 
perfectly  true  and  worthy  of  credit."  (See  Hufeland's  Syn- 
opsis.) He  proceeds  :  "  The  bills  of  mortality  of  the  cele- 
brated Ulpian  agree  in  a  most  striking  manner  with  ours, 
and  in  particular  with  those  of  great  cities.  From  these  it 
appears  that  one  might,  with  great  propriety,  compare 
Rome  with  London,  in  regard  to  the  probability  of  the  du- 
ration of  life.  We  have  sufficient  reason,  therefore,  to  be- 
lieve that  the  duration  of  life  in  the  time  of  Moses,  the 
Greeks,  and  the  Romans,  was  invariably  the  same  as  at 
present ;  and  that  the  age  of  the  earth  has  no  influence  on 
the  longevity  of  its  inhabitants,  that  difference  excepted 
which  may  be  produced  by  the  cultivation  of  its  surface,  and 
the  difference  of  climate  that  may  thence  arise.  The  result 
of  this  research  will  therefore  be,  that  man  may  still  attain 
to  the  same  age  as  ever.  The  difference  only  is,  that  more 
attained  to  old  age  formerly  than  at  present."* 

Flourens  presents  us  with  an  interesting  periscope  on 
the  subject  of  longevity. f  Examining  and  quoting  a  large 
number  of  authorities,  all  of  accredited  testimony,  he  asks, 
"  what  is  the  natural,  usual,  and  normal  life  of  man  ?"  and 
concludes,  from  a  critical  survey  of  the  field,  that  "a  first 
century  of  ordinary  life,  and  almost  a  second  century,  or  half 
a  century  [at  least  ?]  of  extraordinary  life,  is  then  the 
prospect  science  holds  out  to  man.  It  is  quite  true,  to  speak 
like  the  ancients,  that  science  offers  us  great  store  in  life, 

*  "Art  of  Prolonging  Life." 

f  See  "Human  Longevity  and  the  Amount  of  Life  on  the  Globe," 
by  P.  Flourens. 


536  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

more  in  power  than  in  act,  'plus  in  posse,  quam  in  actu;' 
but  were  it  given  to  us  to  offer  it  in  act,  would  the  com- 
plaints of  man  cease  ?  It  is  a  fact,  a  law  that  is  to  say, 
from  general  experience  in  this  class,  (the  mammifera,)  that 
extraordinary  life  can  be  prolonged  to  double  that  of  ordi- 
nary life." 

Buffon  says,  "  The  man  who  does  not  die  of  accidental 
causes,  reaches,  everywhere,  the  age  of  ninety  or  a  hundred 
years.-'7*  He  asserts  this  to  be  true  irrespective  of  varieties 
of  races  and  external  conditions,  "  duration  of  life  depend- 
ing solely  on  internal  constitution,  or  intrinsic  virtue  of 
organs." 

Haller  places  man  among  the  animals  which  live  the 
longest,  and  thinks  "  he  might  live  not  less  than  two  centu- 
ries." He  says,  "Man  should  be  placed  among  the  animals 
that  live  the  longest;  how  very  unjust,  then,  are  our  com- 
plaints of  the  brevity  of  life  !"f  He  collected  a  great  many 
instances  of  extreme  old  age,  the  two  oldest  being  152  and 
169.  The  first,  Thomas  Parr,  of  Shropshire,  comes  in- 
dorsed by  Harvey.  Charles  I.  killed  him  by  feasting  him. 
"  Harvey  dissected  him ;  all  the  viscera  were  perfectly 
healthy ;  the  cartilages  were  not  ossified,  etc.  He  might 
have  lived  many  years  ;  he  died  of  an  accident  "\ 

Hufeland  gives  a  particular  account  of  Thomas  Parr  : 
"  He  was  a  poor  farmer's  servant,  and  obliged  to  maintain 
himself  by  daily  labor.  When  above  120  years  of  age  he 
married  a  widow  for  his  second  wife,  who  lived  with  him 
twelve  years,  and  who  asserted  that  during  that  time  he 
never  betrayed  any  signs  of  infirmity  or  age.  Till  his  130th 
year  he  performed  all  his  usual  work,  and  was  accustomed 
even  to  thrash.  Some  years  before  his  death,  his  eyes  and 
memory  began  to  fail ;  but  his  hearing  and  senses  continued 
sound  to  the  last.  In  his  152d  year  the  king  sent  for  him, 
and  he  was  treated  at  court  in  so  royal  a  manner  that  he 

*  Vol.  ii.  p.  76. 

f  Elementa  Physiologies,  vol.  viii.  lib.  xxx.  p.  75. 

J  Flourcns. 


ANTAEUS   THE    GIANT.  587 

died  soon  after,  at  London,  in  1635,  being  152  years  and 
nine  months  old,  and  having  lived  under  nine  kings  of  Eng- 
land. His  body  was  opened  by  Dr.  Harvey  and  found  to  be 
in  the  most  perfect  state.  His  great  grandson  died  at  Cork 
a  few  years  ago,  at  the  age  of  103,  [and  another  of  his  de- 
scendants at  120,]  showing  the  great  fact  of  transmissible 
stamen  vitas." 

The  other  instance  adduced  by  Haller  has,  from  Hufeland, 
a  more  special  notice,  from  which  it  appears  that  both  these 
modern  patriarchs  were  Englishmen.  He  says :  "  In  the  year 
16TO  died  Henry  Jenkins,  of  Yorkshire.  He  remembered 
the  battle  of  Floddenfield  in  1513,  and  at  that  time  was 
twelve  years  of  age.  It  was  proved,  from  the  registers  of  the 
Chancery  and  other  courts,  that  he  had  appeared,  140  years 
before  his  death,  as  an  evidence,  and  had  an  oath  adminis- 
tered to  him.  At  the  time  of  his  death,  he  was,  therefore,  169 
years  old.  His  last  occupation  was  fishing,  and  when  above 
the  age  of  100,  he  was  able  to  swim  across  rapid  rivers."* 

Hufeland  presents  us  with  a  most  interesting  list  of  vete- 
rans, which  he  says  is  taken  chiefly  from  Bacon's  "Historia 
Vitas  et  Mortis."  Draakenberg,  a  Dane,  born  in  1626,  lived 
to  be  146  years  old.  He  was  a  seaman  till  his  91st  year, 
and  suffered  slavery  in  Turkey  for  15  years.  At  111  he 
married  a  woman  of  threescore,  whom  he  outlived,  and  "  at 
130  years  fell  in  love  with  a  young  country  girl,  who,  as  may 
well  be  supposed,  rejected  his  proposal.  He  made,  unsuc- 
cessfully, several  other  attempts  in  this  line,  but  concluded  to 
finish  his  life  alone."  "In  the  year  115T,  J.  Effingham  died 
in  Cornwall  in  the  144th  year  of  his  age."  Born  poor,  he 
was  brought  up  to  labor,  and  served  as  a  soldier  and  cor- 
poral. He  ended  his  days  as  day-laborer,  had  been  tem- 
perate, and  "  in  his  youth  had  never  drank  strong  and  heat- 
ing liquors."  "  In  the  1792  died,  in  the  Duchy  of  Holstein, 
an  industrious  day-laborer,  named  Stender,  in  the  103d 
year  of  his  age."  He  lived  on  oatmeal  and  buttermilk, 
mostly  ate  flesh  much  salted,  seldom  drank,  was  fond  of 
*  "Art  of  Prolonging  Life?' 


588  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

smoking,  was  old  before  he  used  tea  and  coffee,  lost  his  teeth 
early,  was  never  sick,  "or  out  of  humor,"  and  had  "his 
chief  dependence  always  in  the  goodness  of  God."  "An 
old  soldier,  named  Mittelsted,  died  in  Prussia  in  the  year 
1192,  in  the  112th  year  of  his  age;  was  born  1681,  lost  at  a 
gambling  table,  entered  the  army,  and  was  a  soldier  67  years, 
being  in  seventeen  general  engagements,"  in  the  campaigns 
of  Frederick  I.,  Frederick  William  I.,  and  Frederick  II. 
After  all  these  adventures  he  married  three  wives,  the  third 
in  his  110th  year.  H.  Kauper,  of  Neus,  Cologne,  was  112. 
"He  was  a  strong  man,  and  accustomed  to  walk  every  day." 
Helen  Gray  was  105  years  old.  "  She  was  of  small  stature, 
exceedingly  lively,  peaceable,  and  good  tempered,  and  a  few 
years  before  her  death  acquired  new  teeth."  Thomas  Gar- 
rick  lived  to  be  over  108  years ;  "had  an  extraordinary  ap- 
petite, and  had  not  been  sick  for  twenty  years."  "Anthony 
Senish,  a  farmer  of  the  village  of  Puy,  in  Limoges,  died  in 
It tO,  in  the  lllth  year  of  his  age."  He  labored  till  within 
a  few  days  of  his  death ;  had  his  teeth,  hair,  and  eyesight ; 
his  food,  chestnuts  and  Turkish  corn ;  had  never  been  bled 
nor  used  any  medicine." 

R.  Glen,  a  shoemaker,  lived  at  Tacony,  near  Philadelphia, 
was  114  years  old.  He  was  a  Scotchman ;  had  seen  King  Wil- 
liam III.,  had  a  keen  appetite,  and  was  married  three  times, 
his  last  wife  being  thirty  years  old,  and  "  with  whom  he  lived 
happily."  Notwithstanding  the  conclusions  of  some  learned 
ethnologists  that  the  present  composite  race  of  Anglo- 
Americans  can  never  become  thoroughly  acclimatized,  or 
assume  the  prerogatives  of  an  indigenous  variety  on  this 
continent,  many  instances  have  been  adduced  of  extreme  or 
extraordinary  old  age.  For  a  contradiction  of  a  number  of 
statements  on  this  subject,  see  Dunglison's  "  Human  Health," 
and  other  tables  of  longevity,  mortality,  etc.  Of  the  negro 
race  on  this  question  of  longevity,  he  says :  "  Throughout 
the  United  States  the  number  of  colored  persons,  who  are  re- 
ported to  attain  the  age  of  one  hundred  and  upwards,  bears 
a  large  ratio  to  the  whites."  See  also  Prichard  on  longevity 


ANTAEUS   THE    GIANT.  589 

of  negroes.  At  St.  Andrew's,  Jamaica,  Robert  Lynch,  the 
property  of  Sir  Edward  Hyde  East,  died,  aged  160.  At 
St.  John's,  Antigua,  a  black  woman  died  at  130.  Numerous 
instances  are  given  of  the  great  age  of  this  race  in  the  United 
States.  It  appears  that  the  most  refined  and  polished  na- 
tions have  not  much  pre-eminence  in  longevity  over  savage 
tribes,  leaving  out  a  few  causes  of  destruction  inseparable 
from  the  habitudes  of  barbarous  races,  and  that  Africans 
and  Indians  often  attain  extreme  old  age.  Humboldt  gives 
native  American  Indians  long  lives.  Hilario  Savi  died  at 
Chiguata,  aged  143,  while  Humboldt  was  at  Lima.  Her 
husband,  Andrea  Alexis  Zar,  was  117  years  old.  He  also 
knew  a  Peruvian,  of  130  years,  who  walked  daily  three  or 
four  leagues. 

After  enumerating  cases  of  extreme  longevity,  Hufeland 
remarks :  "  These  are  all  the  instances  of  great  age  in 
modern  times  with  which  I  have  been  acquainted.  Persons 
of  100  I  omit,  for  these  are  more  common."  He  concludes 
on  the  problem,  "  how  long  can  man  live  as  an  individual, 
and  what  is  the  relative  duration  of  human  life  ?"  "  We 
may,  therefore,  with  the  greatest  probability,  assert  that  the 
organization  and  vital  power  of  man  are  able  to  support  a 
duration  and  activity  of  TWO  HUNDRED  years."  This,  as  we 
have  seen,  is  the  conclusion  of  Haller.  On  the  question  of 
what  class  of  men,  employment,  temperament,  etc.  live 
longest,  see  the  tables  of  Madden,  Hufeland,  Flourens,  Wil- 
son, and  ethnologists  and  physiologists  generally.  The  fol- 
lowing would  seem  to  be  the  general  conclusions  :  "  The  most 
extraordinary  instances  of  longevity  are  to  be  found  only 
among  those  classes  of  mankind  who,  amidst  bodily  labor, 
and  in  the  open  air,  lead  a  simple  life  agreeable  to  nature, 
such  as  farmers,  gardeners,  hunters,  soldiers,  and  sailors. 
In  these  situations  man  still  attains  to  the  age  of  140  and 
even  150  years." 

The  general  results  further  seem  to  be  these  :  kings  and  em- 
perors are  not  characterized  as  long  livers.  "  From  Augustus 
till  now,  out  of  two  hundred  Roman  and  German  emperors 

50 


590  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

only  four  lived  to  be  eighty,  namely,  Gordian,  Valerian,  Anas- 
tasius,  Justinian."  This  holds  good  of  the  great  ecclesiastical 
representatives ;  of  over  three  hundred  Popes  only  five  having 
arrived  at  eighty.  Monks  and  hermits,  on  the  contrary,  by 
temperance  and  rectitude,  strict  regimen  and  prayer,  includ- 
ing the  saving  virtues  of  starvation  and  devout  contempla- 
tion of  the  umbilicus,  have  arrived  at  the  patriarchal  num- 
bers. St.  David  survived  146;  Paul,  the  hermit,  113;  St. 
Anthony,  105  ;  John,  the  apostle,  93 ;  Theodore,  of  Can- 
terbury, 88,  and  Athanasius  and  Jerome,  80.  Philosophers 
profound,  it  seems,  attain  great  age,  especially  such  as  are 
"  occupied  with  the  study  of  nature,  and  the  discovery  of 
new  and  divine  truths."  This  is  true  from  the  Greek  to  the 
present  time.  From  the  recitation  of  records,  it  would  seem 
that  poets  and  artists  have  long  leases  from  their  "  occupa- 
tion, which  leads  them  to  be  conversant  with  the  sports  of 
foncy,  and  self-created  worlds,  and  whose  whole  life,  in  the 
roperest  sense,  is  an  agreeable  dream."  It  appears,  from 
the  tables,  that  doctors  are  the  shortest  livers  of  all;  "for, 
at  any  rate,  mortality  is  greater  among  practical  physi- 
cians than  perhaps  among  men  of  any  other  profession." 
"Physicians,  who  so  abundantly  dispense  to  others  the  means 
of  health  and  life,  ought  to  claim  here  a  distinguished  place. 
But,  unfortunately,  this  is  not  the  case.  It  may  be  said  of 
them  in  general :  'Aliis  inserviendo  consumunter ;  aliis  me- 
dendo  moriuntur.'  In  serving  others  they  are  consumed; 
in  healing  others  they  are  destroyed." 

By  consulting  the  highly-interesting  table  of  Erasmus 
Wilson,*  of  the  ages  of  medical  philosophers,  it  will  be  seen 
that  from  Hippocrates  to  Boerhaave  the  range  has  been 
from  seventy  to  ninety-three ;  Hippocrates  only  attaining 
109,  which,  in  the  "venerable  predecessor,"  was  achieved  by 
"  his  whole  life  being  employed  in  the  study  of  nature,  in 
traveling,  and  in  visiting  the  sick  ;  passing  more  of  his  time 
in  small  villages  and  in  the  country  than  in  great  cities." 
It  would  also  appear  from  the  tables  that  miners,  and  those 
exposed  to  poisonous  effluvia,  are  among  the  shortest  livers. 

*  See  page  605. 


ANTAEUS   THE   GIANT.  591 

The  countries  most  favorable  to  longevity  are  Sweden, 
Norway,  Denmark,  England,  Scotland,  Ireland,  France, 
Greece,  Hungary,  and  Germany.  General  conclusions  from 
chapters  on  longevity  synopsized  are  :  age  of  world  no  in- 
fluence on  man  ;  "  people  may  still  become  as  old  as  in  the 
time  of  Abraham;"  at  periods  men  lived  longer,  not  from 
the  world,  but  man  himself.  "When  men  were  in  a  savage 
state,*  simple,  laborious  children  of  nature,  and  much  ex- 
posed to  the  open  air,  as  shepherds,  hunters,  and  farmers, 
great  age  was  very  common  among  them ;  but  when  they 
despised  the  dictates  of  nature,  studied  refinement,  and  in- 
dulged in  luxury,  the  duration  of  life  became  shorter.  The 
same  people,  restored  to  a  rude  state  and  manner  agreeable 
to  nature,  may  regain  their  ancient  longevity."  May  attain 
to  great  age  in  almost  all  climates.  High  situations,  with 
pure  air,  favorable  ;  too  great  height  not  favorable  ;  nothing 
more  unfavorable  to  duration  of  life  than  very  sudden 
changes;^  "in  cold  climates  men  older  than  in  warm,"  ex- 
cept in  extreme  cold  ;  uniformity  as  to  gravity  and  light- 
ness, heat  and  cold,  therefore  small  variations  of  barometer 
and  thermometer,  favorable ;  too  dry  or  too  moist  unfavor- 
able ;  life  on  islands  and  peninsulas  favorable ;  they  are 
"cradles  of  old  age;"  thus,  "longer  life  on  islands  of  Archi- 
pelago than  near  countries  of  Asia  ;  in  Cyprus  than  Syria  ; 
in  Formosa  and  Japan  than  China ;  in  England  and  Den- 
mark than  Germany."  Much  depends  on  ground  and  soil; 
cold  soil  unfavorable ;  where  all  these  favorable  elements 
exist  combined,  men  of  course  attain  the  greatest  age. 

"  The  more  a  man  follows  Nature,  and  is  obedient  to  her 
laws,  the  longer  he  will  live  ;  the  further  he  deviates  from 

*  Diderot  and  Rousseau  advocated  a  return  to  the  savage  state  as 
the  surest  way  of  attaining  the  macrobiotic  life. 

f  "The  zone  which  presents  this  inconstancy  in  the  highest  de- 
gree is  that  comprised  within  the  34th  and  44th  parallels,  having  mean 
temperatures  varying  from  60°  to  45°.  This,  however,  is  the  zone 
of  densest  population  and  greatest  activity ;  demonstrating  that  vicis- 
situdes of  temperature  are  not  unfavorable  to  human  development." — 
DRAKE,  p.  485. 


592  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

these,  the  shorter  will  be  his  existence.  This  is  one  of  the 
most  general  of  laws.  In  the  same  district,  therefore,  as 
long  as  the  inhabitants  lead  a  temperate  life,  as  shepherds 
or  hunters,  they  will  attain  to  old  age  ;  but  as  soon  as  they 
become  civilized,  and  by  these  means  sink  into  luxury,  dissi- 
pation, and  corruption,  their  duration  of  life  will  be  short- 
ened. It  is,  therefore,  not  the  rich  and  great,  not  those  who 
take  gold  tinctures  and  wonder-working  medicines  who  be- 
come old  ;  but  country  laborers,  farmers,  mariners,  and  such 
men  as,  perhaps,  never  in  their  lives  employed  their  thoughts 
on  the  means  which  must  be  used  to  promote  longevity.  It 
is  among  these  people  ONLY  that  the  most  astonishing  in- 
stances of  it  are  to  be  found.  The  most  terrible  mortality 
is  to  be  found  among  West  India  slaves  and  hospitals  for 
foundlings,"  etc.*  Final  conclusion  from  experience,  con- 
densed from  authorities :  moderation  in  everything,  and  in 
a  certain  mediocrity  of  condition,  climate,  health,  tempera- 
ment, constitution,  employment,  spirits,  diet,  etc.,  lies  the 
great  secret  for  becoming  old.  All  extremes  shorten  life. 
There  are  also  other  elements  of  longevity :  the  married 
state  is  favorable ;  there  being  not  one  instance  on  record 
of  a  bachelor  having  attained  to  a  great  age,  (although 
there  are  so  many  old  bachelors /);  labor  in  youth;  avoid- 
ance of  immoderate  use  of  flesh  in  diet ;  cultivation  ;  life  in 
country  and  small  towns  extremely  favorable ;  in  large  towns 
and  cities,  extremely  unfavorable.  More  women  than  men 
become  old,  but  fewer  reach  the  extreme  old  age  of  men. 

For  many  interesting  particulars,  see  tables  of  Hufeland, 
Wilson,  Dunglison,  and  others ;  see  also  instances  of  reno- 
vation of  teeth  and  hair  in  extreme  old  age.  The  following 

*  To  which  Dunglison  replies:  "This  estimate,  (namely,  that  the 
proportion  of  slaves  that  reach  the  age  of  one  hundred  and  upwards, 
is  to  that  of  the  free  in  the  ratio  of  14-1  to  1-02,)  coupled  with  the 
unquestionable  fact,  that  the  slaves  in  the  principal  slaveholding 
States  double  their  number  in  something  less  than  twenty-eight 
years,  is  a  sufficient  answer  to  Hufeland,  who,  without  the  possi- 
bility of  having  data  to  guide  him,  affirms  that  'the  most  terrible 
mortality  reigns  among  them,'"  etc. 


ANTAEUS   THE   GIANT.  593 

tables  from  Hufeland  and  Haller  give  their  results  of  ob- 
servations on  the  relative  duration  of  human  life  : — 

HUFELAND. — Of  a  hundred  men  born,  HALLER. — Of  men  who  lived 

50  die  before  the  tenth  year.  from  100  to  110  years  the 

20  between  10  and  20  instances  have  been  1000. 

10         «       20    "    30  110  to  120     GO 

6         «       30    «    40  120  "  130     29 

5         «       40    "    50  130  «  140     15 

3         «       50    "    60  140  «  150       6 

Six  only  live  to  be  above  60.  169       1 

For  interesting  particulars,  see  tables  of  the  physiologists 
and  writers  on  hygiene  already  quoted. 

Haller  and  Buffon  treat  the  question  of  human  longevity 
in  two  ways :  historically  and  physiologically.  The  his- 
torical side  of  the  question  would  embrace  the  recitation  of 
all  facts  known  of  the  natural,  ordinary,  and  extreme  dura- 
tion of  life.  The  physiological  aspect  of  the  problem  in- 
volves the  contemplation  of  the  great  natural  phases  of 
development  of  the  species,  as  of  gestation,  period  of  growth, 
etc. 

Buffon's  formula  of  the  duration  of  the  lives  of  animals 
is,  they  exist  six  or  seven  times  as  long  as  they  are  growing 
or  attaining  perfect  adult  development.  He  adduces  the 
examples  of  man,  the  dog,  the  horse,  etc. 

Hufeland  asserts  :  "  One  may  lay  it  down  as  a  rule,  that 
an  animal  lives  eight  times  as  long  as  it  grows.  Now,  man 
in  a  natural  state,  where  the  period  of  maturity  is  not 
hastened  by  art,  requires  full  twenty-five  years  to  attain  his 
complete  growth  and  conformation  ;  and  this  proportion  will 
give  him  an  absolute  age  of  200  years,  although  not  above 
one  in  a  thousand  attain  to  the  age  of  100  years." 

Flourens  admits  that  the  "  real  physiological  problem  is 
stated."  He  proceeds:  "One  thing  only  was  unknown  to 
Buffon,  namely,  the  certain  sign  that  marks  the  term  of 
growth.  I  find  this  sign  in  the  union  of  the  bones  with 
their  epiphyses :  as  long  as  the  bones  are  not  united  to  their 

50* 


594  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

epiphyses,  the  animal  grows  ;  when  once  the  bones  and  their 
epiphyses  are  united,  the  animal  grows  no  more.  This  union 
in  man  is  effected  at  20  years  ;  in  the  camel  at  8  ;  horse  5  ; 
ox4;  lion  4;  dog  2 ;  cat  18  months;  rabbit  12  months; 
guinea-pig  7,  etc.  Now  man  lives  from  90  to  100  years  ; 
the  camel  40 ;  horse  25  ;*  ox  15  to  20 ;  lion  20  ;  dog  10  to 
12  ;  cat  9  to  10  ;  rabbit  8  ;  guinea-pig  6  to  7,  ete.  etc.  The 
relation  pointed  out  by  Buffon  is  very  near  the  truth.  He 
says  that  every  animal  lives  nearly  six  or  seven  times  as 
long  as  the  term  of  its  growth.  The  true  relation  is  five, 
or  very  nearly.  Man  being  twenty  years  growing,  lives  five 
times  twenty,  that  is  to  say,  one  hundred  years ;  the  camel 
being  eight,  lives  forty,  etc.  We  have,  then,  finally,  a  pre- 
cise characteristic  which  gives  accurately  the  duration  of 
growth;  the  duration  of  growth  gives  us  the  duration  of 
life.  All  the  phenomena  of  life  are  united  by  the  following 
chain  of  relations  :  the  duration  of  life  is  given  by  the  dura- 
tion of  growth ;  the  duration  of  growth  is  given  by  the 
duration  of  gestation ;  the  duration  of  gestation,  by  the 
height,  etc.  etc.  The  larger  the  animal  the  longer  is  the 
time  of  gestation.  The  gestation  of  the  rabbit  is  thirty 
days ;  that  of  man  is  nine  months ;  that  of  the  elephant  is 
nearly  two  years." 

Such  being  the  finally-arranged  scientific  biological  results 
of  ages  of  observation,  why  this  great  scarcity  of  patriarchs 
of  even  a  century,  and  extreme  rarity  of  octogenarians, 
while  the  regular,  never-failing  harvest  of  threescore  and  ten 
arrives,  and  Death  and  his  dart  appear  so  often  before  half 
a  score,  and  such  multitudes  never  see  onescore  and  five  ? 
How  does  it  come  that  nearly  everybody  (two-fifths !) 
dies  before  five  years  of  age ;  very  many  before  they  are 
born,  (for  the  percentage  of  still-births,  see  tables,)  and 
multitudes  in  their  youth,  while  not  one  in  a  thousand  lives 
to  be  one  hundred  years  old,  as  originally  arranged  by  the 
structure  of  his  bones  in  an  ordinary  physiological  minimum, 

*  As  an  example  of  "extraordinary"  life  in  animals,  the  horse  has 
attained  to  fifty  years. — See  FLOURENS. 


ANTAEUS   THE   GIANT.  595 

not  to  speak  of  the  historical,  and  extraordinary  maximum, 
of  two  hundred  years?  Is  man,  the  giant  Antaeus,  thus 
lifted  and  crushed  in  the  air  by  the  habits  and  vices  of  civil- 
ized life  ?  Let  him  touch  the  earth  again,  and  the  dreams 
of  the  prophets,  the  promises  of  inspired  souls,  and  nature, 
shall  be  realized,  and  the  original  contract  with  God  upon 
bones  will  be  kept  inviolate. 

On  granite  in  place,  then,  we  walk  in  demonstrating  the 
interesting  problem  that  great  human  longevity  is  within 
the  "province  of  pure  reason,"  and  practically  attainable. 
Refreshing,  invigorating,  really  inspiring,  it  is  to  find  that 
there  is  a  possibility  and  hope,  even  a  critical  rendering  of 
feasibility  of  the  undertaking  to  live  to  be  "  as  old  as  Methu- 
selah"— of  course,  as  the  story  is  modernized  by  accredited 
theologians.  The  historical  side  of  the  great  question  clearly 
makes  out  the  case,  which  it  is  enchanting  to  reflect  upon,  that 
a  man  (why  not  any  man,  possibly  every  man  ?)  may  live  to 
be  two  hundred  years  old,  the  interpreted  age  of  Methuselah 
and  Jared,  enjoying  all  his  faculties  to  the  last. 

The  physiological  and  scientific  side  of  the  subject  give 
nearly  the  same  cause  of  jubilation  to  the  mortal  who  wishes 
to  remain  in  the  prison  of  the  flesh  for  a  few  hundred  years, 
by  establishing  the  conclusions,  that  by  demonstrable  laws 
of  nature,  on  the  question  of  the  life  of  bones  and  their 
connection  with  the  animal  economy,  100  years  of  ordinary, 
and  200  of  extraordinary  life,  ought  to  be  enjoyed  by  every 
man  accepting,  under  any  circumstances,  the  common  boon 
of  existence. 

While  history  and  science  stand  hand  in  hand  grandly 
united  (a  rather  rare  occurrence  on  any  subject)  on  this 
question  of  human  longevity,  it  becomes  imperative  to  ask 
for  a  rendering  of  the  conditions  upon  which  these  results 
are  to  be  achieved.  This  is  justice  to  both  history  and  sci- 
ence (a  very  rare  occurrence  to  either)  on  one  of  the  most 
important  subjects  engaging  the  mind  of  man. 

Gratifying,  rather  beatifying,  it  is  to  know,  then,  the 
means  by  which  this  end  or  answer  to  the  prayers  of  all 


596  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

men  is  to  be  consummated,  and  the  result,  the  extreme  of 
macrobiotic  life,  or  ultimate  longevity  of  the  patriarchs, 
achieved.  Here  the  poet  takes  time  by  the  forelock,  and 
philosophy  and  physiology  by  the  nose.  Antaeus,  the 
mighty  giant  and  wrestler,  was  invincible  as  long  as  he  re- 
mained an  integral  and  perfectly  sound  part  of  the  world, 
and  by  organic  and  celestial  harmony  filled  an  indispensable 
need  in  the  instrumentality  of  a  divine  organization,  as  long 
as  some  shape  of  ultimate  filial  life-bond  united  him  with  his 
mother,  the  earth ;  but  a  feeble  infant  in  the  arms  of  any 
brutal  Hercules,  (demon  of  vice,)  who  could  detach  and  easily 
crush  him  in  the  air,  when  his  foot  had  left  the  maternal 
contact. 

Starting  with  ancient  records,  where  things  are  somewhat 
dim  in  the  fields  of  the  prophetic  telescopes,  and  coming  down 
to  the  present  time,  where  the  knife  and  microscope  appear, 
and  records  of  common  courts  testify,  who  lived  the  longest, 
who  fulfilled  the  sum-total  of  all  prophecies,  of  all  philoso- 
phies, of  all  religions,  all  sciences,  natural,  supernatural,  and 
made  the  body  of  man  a  sound  implement,  and  plastic  clay 
in  the  fingers  of  the  pure,  intelligent  soul,  and  told  the  secret 
of  the  universe  on  this  point  of  longevity  ?  First,  the  patri- 
archs were  clearly  the  longest  livers,  because  they  "were 
nomads,  passing  most  of  their  time  in  the  open  air,  were 
temperate,  and  conformed  to  the  dictates  of  nature."  Me- 
thuselah, of  course,  heads  this  list,  attaining  to  upwards  of 
200  years,  the  orthodox  interpretation  of  the  "  acute  divine" 
Hensler,  or  to  near  a  thousand,  old  style,  verbal  rendering. 
In  either  case  he  is  a  precious  fact,  and  stands  as  the  great 
hope  of  humanity.  Then  follow  the  rest  of  the  patriarchs, 
in  order  of  longevity,  Jared,  962  ;  Noah,  950  ;  Adam,  930 ; 
Seth,  912  ;  Cainan,  910  ;  Enos,  905  ;  Lamech,  777,  etc.  etc. 

Yery  nearly  approaching  the  ages  of  these  men  of  centu- 
ries, interpreted  as  already  stated,  profane  history  has  many 
records  of  longevity  with  interesting  examples. 

The  following  table  has  striking  points,  not  only  in  long 
life,  but  as  representing  a  variety  of  types  of  the  different 


ANTAEUS   THE   GIANT. 


597 


bloods  or  races,  showing  that  long  life  is  not  a  character- 
istic of  any  one  original  race  or  compound  race : — 

Table  of  Longevity  of  Mr.  Easton,  Salisbury,  England. 

A.D. 

Appolonius,  of  Tyana,  died  in 99  aged  130 

St.  Patrick  died  in 491  122 

Attila*  died  in 500  124 

Leywarch  Hew  died  in 500  150 

St.  Coemgene  died  in 618  120 

Piastus,  King  of  Poland,  died  in 861  120 

Thomas  Parr  died  in 1635  152 

Henry  Jenkins  died  in 1670  169 

Countess  of  Desmond  died  in 1612  145 

Thomas  Damme  died  in 1648  154 

Peter  Torton  died  in 1724  185 

Margaret  Patters  died  in 1738  137 

John  Rovin  and  wife  died  in 1741  172  and  164 

St.  Mougah,  or  Kentigern,  died  in 1781  185 

Coming  down  to  the  time  of  courts  and  post-mortems,  we 
find  the  testimony  is  pointed  on  one  side,  that  is,  the  order 
of  men  who  lived  the  longest,  and  reasons  why.  Henry  Jen- 
kins lived  to  the  age  of  169  years,  "as  proved  by  the  registers 
of  Chancery  and  other  courts  where  he  had  appeared  as  an 
evidence,"  etc.  He  was  a  fisherman,  and  consequently  passed 
most  of  his  life  in  the  open  air  in  the  exercise  of  the  Wal- 
tonian  art.  He  was  a  close  observer  of  nature,  and  no 
doubt  learned  from  the  fishes  the  art  of  swimming  well,  for 
"when  above  100  years  old  he  was  able  to  swim  across 
rapid  rivers." 

Thomas  Parr,  we  have  seen,  lived  to  be  152  years  and  nine 
months.  He  died  by  the  "accident"  of  overgorging  his 
stomach,  an  accident  that  has  killed  many  a  younger  man. 
Harvey's  post-mortem  showed  him  to  be  perfectly  sound, 
except  the  gorged  stomach,  and  from  all  after-death  appear- 
ances he  might  have  lived  to  the  age  of  Methuselah,  i.e,  nine 
hundred  sixty  and  nine  years,  as  "  his  cartilages  were  not 

*  Attila  succeeded  his  father,  King  of  the  Huns,  in  434,  died  in 
453,  reigned  19  years,  What  Attila  is  the  above  ? 


598  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

ossified,"  and  "there  was  not  the  least  symptom  of  decay  to 
be  discovered,"  and  his  wife,  a  widow  when  he  married  her, 
and  consequently  a  woman  of  knowledge  and  experience, 
testified  that  until  his  132d  year,  when  she  died,  "he  had 
never  betrayed  any  signs  of  infirmity  or  age."  He  was  poor, 
and  "  maintained  himself  by  daily  labor,"  being  "accustomed 
to  thrash,"  and  continued  to  work  to  the  last. 

Draakenberg  was  a  "seaman,"  and  "spent  fifteen  years  as 
a  slave  in  Turkey."  This  sailor  was  a  powerful  man,  and 
had  the  grit  in  his  130th  year  to  "fall  in  love  with  a  young 
country  girl,"  who  was  foolish  enough  to  reject  his  pro- 
posals. "  He  tried  his  fortune  with  several  others,  but  had 
no  better  success."  This  boy  of  near  a  century  and  a  half 
had  come  in  contact  with  the  world,  as  slave  and  sailor,  and 
carried  the  fires  of  love  freshly  in  his  heart  till  near  150,  as 
his  death  occurred  in  his  146th  year. 

Effingham  died  in  his  144th  year.  He  was  born  poor,  and 
brought  up  to  labor  from  infancy.  He  was  "  soldier  and 
corporal,"  and  present  at  many  battles,  but  "was  a  day- 
laborer  till  his  death." 

Stender  was  103  at  his  death.  "  He  was  a  day-laborer 
till  his  death,  drank  seldom,  his  food  for  most  part  being 
oatmeal  and  buttermilk,"  and  "his  chief  dependence  always 
was  in  the  goodness  of  God."  The  list  of  these  ancient 
men  is  quite  extensive,  and  their  habits  of  life,  original  or- 
ganization, or  blood  and  bone  stock,  but  especially  the 
causes  of  their  longevity,  as  shown  by  their  modes  of  exist- 
ence, are  subjects  of  great  interest  to  the  student  of  man. 

From  a  critical  reading  of  this  hopeful  record,  we  dis- 
cover that  the  physical  conditions  necessary  to  extreme 
longevity  are  an  absolute  contact  with  the  earth, — i.e.,  sane, 
rational,  physical  bond  with  nature;  that  long  life  is  only 
attainable  by  man's  becoming  a  sound  conduit  of  the  per- 
petually rejuvenizing  forces  of  the  world,  and  that  bodily 
labor,  existence  in  the  open  air,  as  of  nomads,  or  wander- 
ing shepherds,  hunters,  and  fishermen,  soldiers  and  sailors, 
farmers,  gardeners,  day -laborers,  and  the  habits  of  all  who 


ANTAEUS   THE   GIANT.  599 

lead  a  "simple  life  agreeable  to  nature,"  are  the  true 
powers  of  physical  regeneration,  prevention,  cure  of  and 
exemption  from  disease.     Man,  in  sound  contact  with  the 
earth,   seems  to  be  the   great  problem  solved  of  a  long, 
healthy,  and  bappy  life.     So  much  from  the  material  and 
earthy  side  of  the  question,  and  the  giant  of  Libya  is  the 
Earth-son,  a  mighty  wrestler,  as  long  as  his  body  is  a  prime- 
conductor  of  the  recuperative  forces  of  the  earth.     But  he 
was  a  son  also  of  Poseidon,  the  "  god  of  the  Mediterranean 
Sea,"  who  was  also  "the  god  of  the  fluid  element  of  the 
world."     Of  this  divinity,  Heroditus  (ii.  50 ;  iv.  188)  states 
"  that  the  name  and  worship  of  Poseidon  was  imported  to 
the  Greeks  from  Libya,  but  he  was  probably  a  divinity  of 
Pelasgian  origin,  and  originally  a  personification  of  the  fer- 
tilizing power  of  water,  from  which  the  transition  to  re- 
garding him  as  the  god  of  the  sea  was  not  difficult."    "His 
palace  was  in  the  depth  of  the  sea,  near  Aegae  in  Euboea, 
(xiii.  21 ;  Od.,  v.  381,)  where  he  kept  his  horses  with  brazen 
hoofs  and  golden  manes.     With  these  horses  he  rides  in  a 
chariot  over  the  waves  of  the  sea,  which  become  smooth  as 
he  approaches,  and  the  monsters  of  the  deep  recognize  him 
and  play  around  his  chariot.     He  was  further  regarded  as 
the  creator  of  the  horse,  [symbol  of  genius,]  and  was  ac- 
cordingly believed  to  have  taught  men  the  art  of  managing 
horses  by  the  bridle,  and  to  have  been  the  originator  and 
protector  of  horse  races." 

Poseidon,  the  "  god  of  the  fluid  element,"  the  creator  of  the 
horse,  thus  stands  the  mythical  representative  of  genius  and 
virtue.  The  horse  in  all  symbolisms  represents  the  intellec- 
tual principle,  genius,*  power,  force  of  thought,  and  thus  his 
achievements  herald  the  triumphs  of  the  mind.  But  water 
(fluid  element)  is  the  great  "fertilizer,"  great  cleanser,  washer, 
baptizer,  and  hence,  is  the  symbol  of  virtue  and  regeneration,  f 

*  The  horse  signifies  genius ;  the  ass,  stupidity ;  the  mule,  (a  dole- 
ful cross  between  them,  cursed  with  barrenness,)  common  sense. 

f  Water  signifies  the  spiritual  things  of  faith.  A.C.  680.  To  give 
water  (Gen.  xiii.  24)  signifies  the  common  influx  of  truth;  such  influx 
is  the  illumination  which  gives  the  faculty  of  apperceiving  and  un- 


600  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

and  so  is  revealed  the  perfection  of  this  beautiful  myth.  The 
"  sacrifices  of  Poseidon  were  the  bridled  horse,  wild  boars, 
and  rams,  white  and  black  bulls."  Antaeus,  the  son  of  Posei- 
don, we  thus  discover,  also  represents  the  side  of  spirit,  (the 
soul,)  as  from  his  mother,  the  earth,  he  represents  matter, 
(the  body,)  and  thus  represents  thee,  "oh  rich  and  varied 
man  1"  What  have  we,  then,  on  the  side  of  spirit,  from  this 
son  of  the  earth — what  has  the  fable  to  say  on  the  influences 
from  above  ? 

Physicians  and  philosophers,  physiologists  and  moralists, 
have,  from  the  most  ancient  times,  been  earnest  and  eloquent 
in  announcing  virtue  and  happiness  inseparable,  vice  and 
misery  constant  companions;  "golden  rules  of  health," 
temperance  and  rectitude;  mode  of  attaining  a  long  life, 
exercise  or  work,  moderation  in  all  the  appetites,  and  a  life 
in  conformity  to  both  man's  higher  and  lower  nature.  All 
this  is  simple  as  the  air  we  breathe ;  simple  as  the  water 
we  drink ;  simple  as  the  sleep  that  bathes  us  in  its  life- 
renewing  trance.  Charming  is  the  discovery  of  the  unity 
of  thought,  the  oneness  of  conviction  on  this  subject,  all  ad- 
justed by  the  finest  spiritual  gravitation ;  and  Moses  and  Hip- 
pocrates, Socrates  and  Sydenham,  Plato  and  Hunter,  Bacon 
and  Boerhaave,  Cornaro  and  Hufeland,  shout  the  same  song, 
that  physical  regeneration  is  only  possible  through  tem- 
perance and  virtue,  that  absolute  rectitude  is  a  certain  and 
invaluable  preventive  of  disease,  and  that  man's  life  may  be 
much  sounder,  happier,  and  longer.  Witness  their  recorded 
words,  many  of  them  embalmed  in  everlasting  sweetness.* 

derstanding  truth ;  this  illumination  is  from  the  light  of  heaven, 
which  is  from  the  Lord,  which  light  is  no  other  than  the  divine  truth. 
A.C.  5668. 

*  Especially  is  the  crowing  of  the  juvenile  chanticleer,  Ludovico  Cor- 
naro, at  100  years,  beautiful,  brave,  and  refreshing.  He  was  a  Vene- 
tian of  a  patrician  family,  which  gave  the  republic  three  doges,  besides 
some  females,  poetical  and  learned.  He  was  a  dissipated  man  till  he 
was  40  years  old,  and,  from  some  accounts,  lived  to  be  104,  others 
giving  only  90  years  for  his  life.  When  near  100,  Cornaro  composed 
his  celebrated  song  to  sobriety,  or  a  treatise  on  the  "sure  and  certain 


ANTAEUS   THE    GIANT.  601 

Thus,  from  both  worlds,  represented  in  the  elements  of  the 
mournfully-ruined  and  crushed  members  of  the  mangled 
giant,  from  natural,  from  supernatural,  come  the  stern 

methods  of  attaining  a  long  and  healthy  life."  In  this  little  trea- 
tise we  are  presented  with  an  ecstatic  series  of  encomiums,  or  half 
lyrical  jubilations,  or  hymns,  to  his  golden  panacea  for  all  sorrow, 
infirmity,  and  disease  of  humanity,  his  formula  of  elements  being, 
that  earthly  soundness,  contentment  and  happiness,  and  a  long  life, 
are  only  attainable  through  a  rigid  adherance  to  the  laws  of  temperance, 
sobriety,  exercise,  and  the  cultivation  of  the  household  virtues  of  good 
temper,  regular  hours,  cheerful  spirits,  including  sentiment  and 
music.  Hear  an  apostrophe  of  the  venerable  youth  of  100  in  a  mo- 
ment of  exhilaration : — 

"0  holy,  happy,  and  thrice  blessed  temperance!  how  worthy  art 
thou  of  our  highest  esteem!  and  how  infinitely  art  thou  preferable 
to  an  irregular  and  disorderly  life !  Nay,  would  men  but  consider 
the  effects  and  consequences  of  both,  they  would  immediately  see 
that  there  is  as  wide  a  difference  between  them  as  there  is  betwixt 
light  and  darkness,  heaven  and  hell." 

Again,  the  pious  old  disciple  of  the  doctrine  of  physical  regenera- 
tion through  personal  holiness  and  cleanness  alone,  proceeds : — 

"But  from  these  two  evils,  (sickness  and  death,)  so  dreadful  to 
many,  blessed  be  God,  I  have  but  little  to  fear;  for,  as  for  death,  I  have 
a  joyful  hope  that  that  change,  come  when  it  may,  will  be  gloriously 
for  the  better;  and  besides,  I  trust  that  He,  whose  divine  voice  I  have 
so  long  obeyed,  will  graciously  support  and  comfort  his  aged  servant 
in  that  trying  hour.  And  as  for  sickness,  I  feel  but  little  apprehen- 
sion on  that  account,  since  by  my  divine  medicine  TEMPERANCE,  I 
have  removed  all  the  causes  of  illness ;  so  that  I  am  pretty  sure  I 
shall  never  be  sick,  except  it  be  from  some  intent  of  Divine  mercy, 
and  then  I  hope  I  shall  bear  it  without  a  murmur,  and  find  it  for  my 
good.  Nay,  I  have  reason  to  think  that  my  soul  has  so  agreeable  a 
dwelling  in  my  body,  finding  nothing  in  it  but  peace  and  harmony 
between  my  reason  and  senses,  that  she  is  very  well  pleased  with  her 
present  situation ;  so  that  I  trust  I  have  still  a  great  many  years  to 
live  in  health  and  spirits,  and  enjoy  this  beautiful  world,  which  is 
indeed  beautiful  to  those  who  know  how  to  make  it  so,  as  I  have  done^ 
and  likewise  expect  (with  God's  assistance)  to  be  able  to  do  in  the 
next. 

"Now,  since  a  regular  life  is  so  happy,  and  its  blessings  so  per- 
manent and  great,  all  I  have  still  left  to  do  (since  I  cannot  accom- 
plish my  wishes  by  fore  e)  is  to  beseech  every  man  of  sound  under- 

51 


602  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

edicts  of  physical  despotisms  and  moral  laws,  and  the  voice 
of  mercy  still  pleads  :  "repent  ye,  and  surely  there  is  a  king- 
dom of  heaven  at  hand,"  for  there  is  no  soundness  of  body 
without  soundness  of  soul,  and  no  soundness  of  soul  without 
soundness  of  body. 

Sin,  weariness  of  being,  disease  and  death,  have  thou- 
sands of  doors  to  enter  humanity  :  on  the  side  of  the  body, 
on  the  side  of  the  soul,  obscure  gateways  of  the  body,  sub- 
lime portals  of  the  soul.  Long  has  the  prodigal  wandered 
from  home,  long  has  he  blundered  and  deeply  fallen,  but  his 
pathway  through  swine  husks  and  suffering  becomes  brighter, 
and  his  return  to  realms  of  peace  and  love  is  sure,  for  sound- 
standing  to  embrace,  with  open  arms,  this  most  valuable  treasure  of 
a  long  and  healthy  life :  a  treasure  which,  as  it  far  exceeds  all  the 
riches  of  this  world,  so  it  deserves  above  all  things  to  be  diligently 
sought  after  and  carefully  preserved.  This  is  that  divine  sobriety  so 
agreeable  to  the  Deity,  the  friend  of  nature,  the  daughter  of  reason, 
and  the  sister  of  all  the  virtues.  From  her,  as  from  their  proper 
root,  spring  life,  health,  cheerfulness,  industry,  learning,  and  all 
those  employments  worthy  of  noble  and  generous  minds.  Excess, 
intemperance,  superfluous  humors,  fevers,  pains,  gouts,  dropsies, 
consumptions,  and  the  dangers  of  death,  vanish  in  her  presence,  like 
clouds  before  the  sun.  She  is  the  best  friend  and  safest  guardian 
of  life,  as  well  of  the  rich  as  of  the  poor;  of  the  male  as  of  the 
female  sex  ;  the  old  as  of  the  young.  She  teaches  the  rich  modesty; 
the  poor  frugality ;  men  continence ;  women  chastity ;  the  old  how 
to  ward  off  the  attacks  of  death ;  and  bestows  on  youth  firmer  and 
securer  hopes  of  life.  She  preserves  the  senses  clear,  the  body  light, 
the  understanding  lively,  the  soul  brisk,  the  memory  tenacious,  our 
motions  free,  and  all  our  faculties  in  a  pleading  and  agreeable  har- 
mony. 

"0  most  innocent  and  divine  sobriety!  the  sole  refreshment  of 
nature,  the  nursing  mother  of  life,  the  true  physic  of  soul  as  well  as 
of  body.  How  ought  men  to  praise  thee  for  thy  princely  gifts,  for 
thy  incomparable  blessings !  But  as  no  man  is  able  to  write  a  suffi- 
cient panegyric  on  this  rare  and  excellent  virtue,  I  shall  put  an  end 
to  this  discourse,  lest  I  should  be  charged  with  excess  in  dwelling  so 
long  on  so  pleasing  a  subject.  Yet,  as  numberless  things  may  still 
be  said  of  it,  I  leave  off,  with  an  intention  to  set  forth  the  rest  of  its 
praises  at  a  more  convenient  opportunity." 


ANTAEUS  THE   GIANT.  (503 

ness  of  both  body  and  soul  is  the  indefeasible  birthright 
of  his  being,  and  cannot  be  stolen  from  him  by  hollow  de- 
lusions of  sin.  All  has  been  heralded  by  the  sublimity  of 
the  laws  of  his  genesis ;  all  foretold  by  the  grandeur  of  his 
birth.  The  perfected  splendor  of  material  nature,  the  pro- 
duction of  his  body  alone,  seems  to  have  exhausted  ante- 
cedent worlds ;  and  when  the  celestial  flames  of  an  immortal 
spirit  burned  upon  the  humble  altar  of  his  clay,  and  thought, 
love,  conscienciousness,  devotion,  and  truth  were  added  to 
the  miracle  of  organization,  and  the  cell  was  arrayed  with 
the  halo  of  strength  and  the  spells  of  beauty,  the  end  had 
surely  come,  "  and  God  saw  everything  that  he  had  made, 
and  behold,  it  was  very  good." 

"  The  first  creation  of  the  organic  took  place  where  the 
first  mountain  summits  projected  out  of  the  water;  and 
thus,  indeed,  without  doubt,  in  India,  (?)  if  the  Himalaya* 
be  the  highest  mountain. 

"  The  first  organic  forms,  whether  plant  or  animal,  em- 
erged from  the  shallow  parts  of  the  sea. 

"  It  is  possible  that  man  has  only  originated  on  one  spot, 
and  that  indeed  on  the  highest  mountain. 

"It  is  even  possible,  that  only  one  favorable  moment  was 
granted,  in  which  men  could  arise. 

"  The  first  men  were  the  littoral  and  mountainous  inhabit- 
ants of  warmer  countries,  and  found,  therefore,  at  once,  rep- 
tiles, fishes,  fruit,  and  game,  for  food."f 

In  the  scientific  genealogy  of  things,  the  mountainous 
summits  must  have  been  the  first  shores  in  the  universal 
waters,  and  consequently  the  first  organic  life-theatres,  and 
this  because  the  sun  first  kissed,  dawn  first  bathed,  the 
mountain  heights,  (poetical,  divine  genesis  of  life  !)J  and  the 
imponderable  broke  the  deep  slumber  of  the  ponderable, 

*  Dwalagiri,  28,000  feet;  Kunchinginga,  28,173  feet. 

f  Organogeny,  L.  O. 

J  The  sether  imparts  the  substance,  the  heat  the  form,  the  light 
the  life.  (Oken  first  started  this  opinion  in  his  work,  "  Die  Zeugung," 
Frankfurt,  Wesche,  1805.) 


604  THE   MOUNTAIN 

galvanism*  and  the  rock  being  the  first  victims  of  an 
erotic  trance,  and  the  "  Goddess  of  Love  arose  from  ocean's 
foam."  Mountains  are  still  the  shores  of  the  ocean  of  true 
life,f  the  life  of  body  and  soul;  for  the  sun  must  still  first 
kiss  their  summits,  the  dawn  must  bathe  them  with  her  first 
golden  beams,  and  the  beatitude  of  being,  the  truest  and 
purest  raptures  of  consciousness,  there  spring  in  the  immor- 
tal freshness  and  beauty  of  Yenus  rising  from  that  rosy  sea. 

Lo  !  for  the  son  of  man  there  is  hope  in  the  return  to 
perennial  fountains  of  vitality;  he  may  share  the  undying 
youth  of  Nature  by  placing  himself,  an  immortal  babe,  with 
humility  and  faith,  in  contact  with  his  mother's  bosom,  and 
thus,  by  temperance  and  rectitude,  virtue  and  holiness,  com- 
mune again  in  love  and  worship  with  God  and  the  universe. 

This  is  the  coming  day,  the  morn  of  health  and  life  for 
the  body ;  this  is  also  the  coming  day  of  true  life  for  the 
soul,  when,  throned  on  ocean's  wave,  her  "  dawn  is  also 
blushing  o'er  the  world." 

*  "Galvanism  is  the  principle  of  life.  There  is  no  other  vital 
force  than  the  galvanic  polarity.  The  heterogeneity  of  the  three 
terrestrial  elements  in  a  circumscribed  individual  body  is  the  vital 
force.  The  galvanic  process  is  one  with  the  vital  process.  Elec- 
trism  has  a  basis ;  it  is  the  air.  Magnetism  has  a  basis;  it  is  the 
metal.  Chemism  has  a  basis;  it  is  the  salt.  So  has  galvanism  a 
basis;  it  is  the  organic  mass." — BIOLOGY,  L.  0. 

f  Large  extents  of  the  earth's  surface  are  still  covered  by  the  ma- 
larial sea  for  many  months  of  the  year.  The  mountains,  in  these 
regions  of  "bad  air,"  often  stretch  up  through  and  above  the  sur- 
face of  this  sea,  and  are  the  only  places  of  safety  for  the  inhabitants 
of  the  valleys  at  their  bases.  To  a  certain  degree  of  N.  latitude,  the 
Atlantic  Plain  and  Interior  Valley  of  North  America  are  vast  gulfs 
of  this  ocean  of  malaria,  and  the  mountains  bounding  them,  i.e.  the 
Appalachian  and  Rocky  chains,  where  their  summits  extend  above 
the  plains  or  surfaces  of  these  poisoned  gulfs,  are  the  natural  and  only 
places  of  refuge  for  the  inhabitants  of  that  plain  and  valley.  Thus 
are  mountains  not  only  poetically  and  philosophically,  but  literally 
(littorally)  and  scientifically,  the  true  shores  of  the  ocean  of  life. 


ANTAEUS   THE  GIANT.  605 


(NOTE  TO  PAGE  590,  AT  *) 

The  following  list  embraces  a  few  distinguished  names  of  medical 
philosophers  who  have  attained  an  advanced  age : — 

Boerhaave 70 

Haller 70 

Tissot 70 

Gall 71 

Darwin 72 

Van  Swieten 72 

Fallopius 72 

Jenner 75 

Heister 75 

Cullen 78 

Galen 79 

Spallanzani 79 

Harvey , 81 

Mead 81 

Duhamel 82 

Astruc 83 

Hoffman 83 

Pinel 84 

Swedenborg 85 

Morgagni 89 

Heberden 92 

Ruysch 93 

Hippocrates 109 

ERASMUS  WILSON. 


51* 


PAN  A  SYMBOL  OF  THE  UNIVERSE. 


PAN,  (77av,)  the  great  god  of  flocks  and  shepherds  among  the 
Greeks;  his  name  is  probably  connected  with  the  verb  TTGCW,  Lat. 
pasco,  (to  feed,)  so  that  his  name  and  character  are  perfectly  in 
accordance  with  each  other.  There  are  later  speculations,  according 
to  which  Pan  is  the  same  as  TO  Tray,  or  the  universe,  and  the  god  the 
symbol  of  the  universe.  He  is  described  as  a  son  of  Hermes,  by  the 
daughter  of  Dryops,  (Horn.  Hymn.,  vii.  34,)  or  as  the  son  of  Hermes, 
by  Penelope.  Some,  again,  call  him  the  son  of  Aether  and  Oeneis, 
or  a  Nereid,  or  a  son  of  Uranus  and  Ge.  From  his  being  a  grandson 
or  great  grandson  of  Cronos,  he  is  called  xpovioq.  (Eurip.  Rhes.  36.) 
He  was,  from  his  birth,  perfectly  developed,  and  had  the  same  appear- 
ance as  afterwards — that  is,  he  had  his  horns,  beard,  puck  nose, 
tail,  goat's  feet,  and  was  covered  with  hair,  so  that  his  mother  ran 
away  with  fear  when  she  saw  him;  but  Hermes  carried  him  into 
Olympus,  where  all  (Travre?)  the  gods  were  delighted  with  him,  and 
especially  Dionysus.  (Horn.  Hymn.,  vii.  36,  etc.,  comp.  sil.  Ital., 
xiii.  332;  Lucian,  Dial.  Dcor  22.)  He  was  brought  up  by  nymphs. 
(Paus.,  viii.  30,  §  2.)  The  principal  seat  of  his  worship  was  Arcadia, 
and  from  thence  it  spread  over  other  parts  of  Greece.  In  Arcadia 
he  was  the  god  of  forests,  pastures,  flocks,  shepherds,  and  huntsmen, 
dwelling  in  grottoes,  and  wandering  on  the  summits  of  mountains 
and  rocks.  As  the  god  of  everything  connected  with  pastoral  life, 
he  was  fond  of  music,  and  invented  the  shepherd's  flute.  He  was 
possessed  of  prophetic  powers,  and  instructed  Apollo  in  this  art.  Fir 
trees  were  sacred  to  him;  and  the  sacrifices  offered  to  him  consisted 
of  cows,  rams,  lambs,  milk,  and  honey.  (Theocrit.,  v.  58;  Anthol. 
Palat.,  ii.  630,  697,  vi.  96,  239,  vii.  59.)— Greek  and  Roman  Mythol- 
ogy. L.  S. 


608 


The  fame  of  Democritus  in  modern  times  rests  on  his  extraordi- 
nary prevision  of  the  Atomic,  or  modern  physical  theory  of  the  Uni- 
verse. Rising  above  the  confined  idea  of  the  Ionian  school,  that  all 
things  are  modifications  of  one  element  or  principle,  he  broached  the 
conception  that  bodies  are  made  up  of  ultimate  atoms,  and  that  in  the 
character  of  these  atoms  must  be  sought  the  explanation  of  the  quali- 
ties of  what  we  call  body.  He  went  off  at  once  from  all  barren  lago- 
machies  about  the  Plenum,  and,  indeed,  more  than  any  other  thinker 
of  antiquity,  achieved  the  privilege  of  laying  down  the  ground  of 
just  speculation  in  physics.  His  doctrines  prevailed  widely,  and 
were  afterwards  enshrined  in  noble  verse  by  Lucretius.  Democritus 
was  certainly  a  materialist:  the  mind,  he  thought,  like  fire,  consisted 
of  finer  atoms.  He  had  no  notion  of  life  apart  from  the  body;  and  the 
gods  he  deemed  delusion.  He  had  grand  views  of  the  universe.  In 
the  milky  way,  first  of  all,  he  saw  the  light  of  innumerable  worlds; 
but  he  had  a  correspondingly  mean  opinion  of  the  nature  and  destiny 
of  Man.  Nay,  he  treated  Man,  his  evanescent  works,  and  feeble 
struggles,  so  lightly,  that  we  find  his  effigies  always  with  a  jeer  on 
the  lip,  and  himself  with  the  appellation  of  the  laughing  philosopher. 
Democritus  is  not  the  only  thinker  who,  in  the  intensity  of  his  con- 
templation of  material  nature,  has  overlooked  a  Force  infinitely  more 
enduring  and  grand. 

The  loss  of  his  writings  is  that,  perhaps,  among  all  calamities  to 
ancient  monuments,  which  we  ought  most  to  deplore.  The  titles  of 
his  works  relate  to  Logic,  Ethics,  Physics,  Mathematics,  Astronomy, 
Medicine,  Poetry,  Music,  Grammar,  and  even  Strategy.  Cicero  tells 
us,  that  in  style  Democritus  might  be  the  rival  of  Plato — he  wrote  so 
clearly,  and  so  adorned  what  he  wrote.  During  his  youth  and  man- 
hood he  traveled  through  India,  Ethiopia,  Chaldsea,  and  Persia; 
spent  several  years  in  Egypt,  and  seems  to  have  visited  the  schools 
of  Pythagoras  and  Zeno.  It  is  said  also  that  he  heard  Socrates,  and 
communed  with  Anaxagoras  concerning  the  phenomena  of  Astronomy 
and  the  physical  structure  of  Nature. 

J.  P.  N. 

Cyc.  of  Biog. 


609 


Democritus  (AyfrixptTos)  was  a  native  of  Abdera,  in  Thrace.  His 
birth  was  fixed  by  Appolodorus  460  years  before  Christ.  He  spent  a 
great  inheritance  in  traveling  over  the  world,  to  satisfy  his  extraor- 
dinary thirst  for  knowledge.  He  visited  all  the  distinguished  men  of 
science  of  the  times,  and  his  wealth  enabled  him  to  purchase  the 
works  they  had  written.  His  investigations  embraced  all  departments 
of  human  knowledge,  especially  such  as  related  to  natural  history.  He 
excelled,  in  the  extent  of  his  knowledge,  all  the  earlier  Greek  philoso- 
phers, among  whom  Leucippus,  the  founder  of  the  atomic  theory,  is 
said  to  have  had  the  greatest  influence  upon  his  philosophical  studies. 
It  is  said  that  he  was  on  terms  of  friendship  with  Hippocrates,  and 
some  writers  even  speak  of  a  correspondence  between  Democritus  and 
Hippocrates.  He  was  a  contemporary  of  Plato,  and  may  have  been 
acquainted  with  Socrates,  and  Plato  also,  although  Plato  does  not 
mention  him.  Aristotle  describes  him  and  his  views  as  belonging  to 
the  ante-Socratic  period;  but  modern  scholars,  such  as  the  learned 
Dutchman,  Groen  van  Prinsterer,  assert,  that  there  are  symptoms  in 
Plato  which  show  a  connection  with  Democritus ;  and  the  same 
scholar  pretends  to  discover  in  Plato's  language  and  style  an  imita- 
tion of  Democritus.  (Persop.  Plat.  p.  42.)  Many  anecclotes  about 
Democritus  are  preserved,  especially  in  Diogenes  Laertius,  showing 
that  he  was  a  man  of  the  most  sterling  and  honorable  character.  His 
diligence  was  incredible:  he  lived  exclusively  for  his  studies,  and  his 
disinterestedness,  modesty,  and  simplicity  are  attested  by  many  fea- 
tures which  are  related  of  him.  Notwithstanding  his  great  property, 
he  seems  to  have  died  in  poverty,  though  highly  esteemed  by  his 
fellow-citizens,  not  so  much  on  account  of  his  philosophy  as  because, 
as  Diogenes  says,  "he  had  foretold  them  some  things  which  the  event 
proved  to  be  true."  This  had  probably  reference  to  his  knowledge  of 
natural  phenomena.  His  fellow-citizens  honored  him  with  presents 
in  money  and  bronze  statues.  Even  the  scoffer  Timon,  who,  in  all 
his  silli,  spared  no  one,  speaks  of  Democritus  only  in  praise.  He 
died  at  an  advanced  age,  (some  say  that  he  was  109  years  old,)  and 
even  the  manner  in  which  he  died  is  characteristic  of  his  medical 
knowledge,  which,  combined  as  it  was  with  his  knowledge  of  nature, 
caused  a  report,  which  some  persons  believed,  that  he  was  a  sorcerer 
and  a  magician.  (Plin.  H.  N.,  xxiv.  17,  xxx.  1.)  His  death  is  placed 
in  01.  105.4,  or  B.C.  357,  in  which  year  Hippocrates  also  is  said  to 
have  died.  (Clinton,  F.  H.,  ad  ann.  357.)  There  was  a  tradition  that 
he  had  deprived  himself  of  his  sight  to  be  less  disturbed  in  his  pur- 
610 


suits,  an  invention  of  a  later  age,  which  was  fond  of  piquant  anec- 
dotes. He  probably  lost  his  sight  by  severe  study.  This  loss  did 
not  disturb  the  cheerful  disposition  of  his  mind  and  his  views  of 
human  life,  which  was  to  look  at  the  cheerful,  comical  side  of  things, 
which  later  writers  took  to  mean  that  he  always  laughed  at  the  fol- 
lies of  men.  (Senec.  de  Ira.,  ii.  10;  Aelian,  V.  H.,  iv.  20.)  His 
knowledge  was  universal,  from  mathematics  and  natural  science  to 
philosophy  and  poetry.  Aristotle  wrote  a  work  on  his  problems,  and 
Cicero  praised  his  works  for  poetic  beauties  and  liveliness  of  style, 
comparing  them  with  the  works  of  Plato.  Unfortunately,  his  works 
have  not  come  down  to  us,  or  only  in  fragments  considered  spurious. 
He  carried  out  Leucippus's  theory  of  atoms,  especially  in  his  obser- 
vation on  nature.  [For  explanations  of  this  theory,  see  Adolph  Stahr's 
account  of  Democritus,  in  Greek  and  Roman  Mythology,  from  which 
these  notices  are  excerpted,  exhibiting  the  first  dawn  of  the  theory  of 
atoms,  or  obscure  gropings  of  the  mind,  which  ultiniated,  now  stand 
•  the  sublime  formulae  of  science.]  In  his  ethical  philosophy,  Demo- 
critus considered  the  acquisition  of  peace  of  mind  the  end  and  ulti- 
mate object  of  our  actions.  (Diog.  Lae'rt.,  ix.  45;  Cic.  de  Fin.,  v.  29.) 
This  peace,  this  tranquillity  of  mind,  and  freedom  from  fear  and 
passion,  is  the  last,  and  fairest  fruit  of  philosophical  inquiry.  The 
noblest  and  purest  ethical  tendency  is  manifested  in  his  views  on 
virtue  and  on  good.  Truly  pious,  and  beloved  by  the  gods,  he  says, 
are  only  those  who  hate  that  which  is  wrong.  The  purest  joy  and 
the  truest  happiness  are  only  the  fruit  of  the  higher  mental  activity 
exerted  in  the  endeavor  to  understand  the  nature  of  things,  of  the 
peace  of  mind  arising  from  good  actions,  and  of  a  clear  conscience. 

The  titles  of  the  works  which  the  ancients  ascribe  to  Democritus 
may  be  found  in  Diogenes  Laertius.  [They  almost  form  a  system  of 
Pantology.]  A.  S. 

Greek  and  Roman  Myth,  and  Eiog. 


Cuvier  believed  it  his  duty  to  call  Democritus  the  first  Comparative 
Anatomist. — Hist,  des  Sciences  Nalurelle,  p.  103. 


611 


There  are  only  two  kinds  of  generation  in  the  world — the  creation 
proper,  and  the  propagation  that  is  sequent  thereupon,  or  the  gene- 
ratio  originaria  and  secundaria. 

No  organism  has  been  consequently  created  of  larger  size  than  an 
infusorial  point.  No  organism  is,  nor  has  one  ever  been,  created, 
which  is  not  microscopic. 

Whatever  is  larger,  has  not  been  created,  but  developed. 

Man  has  not  been  created,  but  developed.  So  the  Bible  itself 
teaches  us.  God  did  not  make  man  out  of  nothing;  but  took  an 
elemental  body  then  existing,  an  earth-clod,  or  carbon;  moulded  it 
into  form,  thus  making  use  of  water;  and  breathed  into  it  life, 
namely,  air,  whereby  galvanism,  or  the  vital  process,  arose. — 
Organogeny.  L.  0. 


"Animals  are  only  the  persistent  foetal  stages  or  conditions  of  man. 
Malformations  are  only  persistent  foetal  conditions,  or  animal  forma- 
tions in  individual  animal  bodies.  Diseases  are  vital  processes  in  ani- 
mals. Pathology  is  the  physiology  of  the  animal  kingdom.  A  human 
foetus  is  a  whole  animal  kingdom."  Death  is  only  a  continuous 
growth  through  retrogression  into  the  organic  primary  matter  or  Infu- 
soria. Death  is  an  organized  decomposition.  Decomposition  is  a 
forming  of  seeds,  ova,  and  foetuses.  Dying  is  a  multiplication  of 
self.  No  individual  organism  is  eternal,  because  it  is  only  a  changing 
pole  6f  the  world-organism.  There  is  no  constancy  in  the  individ- 
ualities; change  only  is  persistent.  Death  is  no  annihilation,  but  only 
change.  One  individual  emerges  out  of  another.  Death  is  only  a 
transition  to  another  life,  not  unto  death. — Biology. 

L.  0. 


612 


Rejuvenescence  appears,  in  the  first  place,  as  a  return  to  an  ear- 
lier condition  of  life,  whereby  is  obtained  a  point  of  departure  for 
renewed  progress ;  or,  in  the  extreme  case,  as  a  retrogression  to  the 
commencement  of  the  entire  course  of  development,  to  attain  the  aim 
in  a  repetition  of  the  development. 

Inquiring  into  the  causes  of  the  phenomena  of  Rejuvenescence,  we 
recognize  that  external  Nature,  amid  which  special  life  displays  itself, 
acts  in  calling  and  awakening  through  the  influences  which  the  sea- 
sons of  the  year,  nay,  even  the  hours  of  the  day,  bring  forth;  but 
the  proper  internal  cause  can  only  be  found  in  the  tendency  toward 
completion,  which  is  present  in  every  existence  according  to  its  kind, 
and  drives  it  to  subordinate  to  itself  ever  more  completely  the  foreign 
and  external  world,  to  shape  itself  within  it  as  independently  as  the 
specific  Nature  allows. 

The  mind  which  becomes  developed  in  Man  is  not  fitted  together, 
with  the  physical  organism,  from  without,  for  we  behold  its  evolution 
indicated  in  the  lower  stages  of  natural  life,  especially  in  the  animal 
kingdom;  the  spiritual  life  is  rather  the  purest  and  most  refined  re- 
presentative of  the  fundamental  life,  which  we  meet  as  natural  life  in 
the  preceding  stages.  We  may  say  of  Mind,  that  it  is  the  youngest; 
and  yet  the  oldest,  existence  in  nature,  destined  to  attain,  in  its  last 
age,  its  eternal  youth,  the  freedom  fittest  to  its  essential  nature.  Rising 
from  the  groundwork  of  Nature  bearing  and  supporting  them,  the 
spiritual  Rejuvenescences  in  the  history  of  Man  strive  toward  this 
aim  of  internal  vital  emancipation,  driving  the  mind  out  of  every 
senility,  every  fetter  of  time,  to  soar  upward  in  a  new  flight  of  life. 


Nature  points  to  Man  from  step  to  step,  ever  more  distinctly 
throughout  her  entire  series;  and  Man  again  cannot  be  considered 
without  that  which  itself  constitutes  his  humanity,  the  development 
of  Mind.-  The  development  of  Mind  cannot  be  separated  from  its 
substratum,  Nature,  since  although  Mind  itself  is  destined  to  rise 
victorious  over  all  the  obstructions  of  physical  life,  it  must  also  pene- 
trate backward  through  all  the  stages  of  that  life,  and  give  them  a 
spiritual  signification.  Only  by  starting  from  this  standing-point, 
fixing  the  aim  of  the  entire  development  in  Nature,  can  we  find  the 
true  internal  connection  of  all  the  gradations  of  natural  life;  and  by 
the  very  conjunction  with  the  course  of  development  of  Man,  Natural 
History  acquires  its  highest  import.  Nature,  without  man,  presents 
externally  the  image  of  a  labyrinth  without  a  clue.  The  aim  to 
which  the  infinite  Rejuvenescences  throughout  all  Nature  strive,  is 
the  progressive  development  of  the  Human  Race. 

DR.  ALEXANDER  BRAUN. 
52  613 


The  cell  is,  therefore,  the  IMMEDIATE  FOCUS  of  REJUVENESCENCE, 
the  POINT  from  whence  come  all  the  phenomena  of  Rejuvenescence  in 
the  building  up  of  the  articulated  (or  complex)  organism  of  the 
plant. 

Thus  have  we  completed  our  design  of  subjecting  to  minute  inspec- 
tion, in  the  example  of  the  development  of  the  Vegetable  Organism, 
the  phenomenon  of  Rejuvenescence,  a  phenomenon  profoundly  con- 
nected with  the  essence  of  natural  life,  and  lying  at  the  base  of  all 
progressive  movement  of  life  and  development,  with  its  multifariously 
complicated  ascending  and  descending  vibrations,  in  the  largest  as  in 
the  smallest  circle  of  Nature,  since  this  movement  is  sustained  in  every 
case  only  by  renovation. 

Is  it  not  here  again  the  recollection  of  the  original  destination  of 
created  life,  which  carries  up  step  by  step  the  development  of  nature, 
from  the  first  stirrings  of  life,  through  infinitely  numerous  links  of 
Rejuvenescence,  to  the  appearance  of  Man?  Finally,  is  it  not  this 
which  impels  even  humanity  to  rejuvenize  itself  from  race  to  race  in 
even  more  deeply-searching  recollection  of  its  high  purpose,  compre- 
hending that  of  all  Nature,  and  connecting  it  with  the  Eternal  Source 
whence  all  internal  Law  and  Force  of  Life  derive  their  origin? 

BRAUN. 
614 


CHAPTER   11. 


PAN  A  SYMBOL    OF  THE  UNIVERSE, 


"The  true  recognition  of  the  organism  of  Nature  and  its  composi- 
tion of  members  or  links,  as  objective  facts  expressed  by  Nature 
itself,  is  essentially  necessary  to  the  higher  shaping  of  Natural  His- 
tory as  a  unit." 


THE  atomic  theory  of  Leucippus,  elaborated  by  Democri- 
tus  twenty-three  hundred  years  ago,  and  its  connection  with 
modern  science,  or  the  theories  of  atoms  or  scientific  minima, 
which  now  prevail,  do  not  demand  a  critical  or  minute  analy- 
sis here.  As  it  is  impossible  for  the  rational  intelligence  to 
conceive  of  an  accident,  the  apparent  coincidence  of  the  doc- 
trine of  antiquity — that  "bodies  are  made  of  ultimate  atoms, 
and  that  in  the  character  of  these  atoms  must  be  sought  the 
explanation  of  the  qualities  of  what  we  call  body," — with  the 
present  announcement  of  the  microscope,  that  "no  organism 
has  been  created  of  larger  size  than  an  infusorial  point;"  and 
that  "no  organism  is,  nor  has  one  ever  been  created,  which  is 
not  microscopic;"  and  that  the  "organism  of  nature  and  its 
composition,  of  members  or  links,  as  objective  facts  expressed 
by  nature  itself,  is  essentially  necessary  to  the  higher  shaping 
of  natural  history  as  a  unit," — will  appear  as  the  revelation 
of  a  sublime  law  of  the  intellect,  its  prophetic  instincts,  and 
patient  searching,  under  the  dread  powers  which  preside 
over  the  worlds  of  matter  and  mind. 

615 


616  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

What  has  the  Understanding,  in  its  efforts  to  solve  the 
mystery  of  creation,  and  climb  the  ladder  between  the  finite 
and  infinite,  done,  but  tramp  in  ceaseless  iteration  upon  the 
steps  of  the  majestic  treadmill  of  a  system  of  grand  but  iden- 
tical propositions?  For  more  than  two  thousand  years  it 
appears  upon  the  record,  that  the  mind  of  man  has  been 
after  the  molecule  of  matter ;  and  although  the  last  step  has 
not  been  taken,  the  last  question  answered,*  or  the  last  analy- 
sis executed,  still,  what  wondrous  strides  have  been  made  on 
the  trail  of  the  atom,  from  Leucippus  to  Malpighi  and  Dai- 
ton,  and  from  Democritus  to  Leuwenhceck,  Hook,  Grew, 
Ehrenberg,  Schawn,  Kutzing,  and  Schleiden,  what  a  world 
has  sprung  into  existence  I  Had  not  that  ancient  philoso- 
pher, (Democritus,)  who  said  that  "he  preferred  the  dis- 
covery of  a  true  cause  to  the  possession  of  the  kingdom  of 
Persia,"  a  worthy  successor  and  fruit  of  the  centuries,  in  the 
genius  of  the  youthful  Rectorf  of  Kendal  school,  (Dalton,) 
who  preferred  the  unambitious  labor  of  teaching  mathematics 
at  Manchester,  and  the  discovery  of  the  atomic  theory  of 
chemistry,  to  the  throne  possibly  of  a  bishopric  of  England. 

Gifted  and  profound  souls  herald  and  announce  gifted 
and  profound  souls,  through  the  desert  wastes  of  long  hun- 
dreds of  years,  with  an  understanding  that  seems  the  identity 
of  inspiration ;  and  although  there  is  a  vast  difference  between 
the  story  of  the  primeval  atom  of  the  ancient  philosophers 
and  the  modern  atom  of  chemistry,  or  the  doctrine  of  definite 

*  "The  origin  of  the  cell  is  by  no  means  yet  quite  clearly  made 
out;  only  this  much  is  certain,  that  a  peculiar  little  body  appertain- 
ing to  the  primordial  utricle,  and  called  the  cell-nucleus,  plays  a  very 
important  part  in  it." — Structure  of  Plants.  M.  J.  SCHLEIDEN,  Prof, 
of  Botany  to  the  University  of  Jena. 

f  Dalton  succeeded  to  the  Kectorship  of  a  school  at  Kendal  in 
his  nineteenth  year,  and,  after  remaining  there  for  eight  years,  re- 
tired to  Manchester,  and  preferred  leading  the  "unobtrusive  life  of 
a  scientific  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends,"  and  advancing  the 
world  by  one  of  the  most  splendid  discoveries  of  science,  to  advanc- 
ing himself  in  a  worldly  point  of  view,  although  a  gold  medal  by  the 
Royal  Society  and  a  statue  by  Chantrey  came  at  last. 


PAN.  617 

proportions,  and  the  cytoblast  and  vesicle  of  the  modern  ani- 
mal and  vegetable  physiologist,  yet  there  is  here  revealed 
the  intellectual  laws  by  which  minds  act  through  aboriginal 
necessities  of  spiritual  beings,  demonstrating  that  the  great 
intuitions  of  the  analytic  and  synthetic  powers  of  the  soul 
are  held  in  leading  strings  by  the  unalterable  logic  of  the 
plan  of  nature  and  the  essential  elements  of  the  structure  of 
things.  Thus  grow  the  spiritual  edifices  of  man  by  an  archi- 
tecture whose  laws  are  grave  and  sublime,  grand  and  beauti- 
ful as  the  soul  itself,  and  the  plans  of  the  temples  are  all  ar- 
ranged by  antecedent  mathematics  or  geometry  of  thought, 
and  have  their  everlasting  prototypes  scored  upon  the  tablets 
of  the  mind. 

Strange  is  the  enchantment,  fatal  the  chain,  of  that  re- 
morseless basilisk  atom ;  wonderful,  but  fell,  is  the  power  of 
despotism  of  that  ideal  minimum.  Why  do  the  most  majestic 
seekers,  the  most  subtile  and  exhaustive  minds,  gravitate 
toward  this  gyratory  maze?  Why  have  so  many  of  the 
finest  spirits  incarnated,  so  many  profoundly  attuned  souls, 
brooded  in  solitude  and  prayer  over  the  secret  of  the  atom, 
and  made  the  terrible  analysis  of  the  ultimate  monad  the 
dream  of  existence,  the  criterion  of  intellectual  power?  Leu- 
cippus,  Democritus,  Kepler,  Descartes,*  Malpighi,f  Lewen- 
hoeck,  Ehrenberg,  and  Schleiden,  have  held  to  the  ultimate 
exploration  of  the  logical  details  of  all  things,  knowing  that 
thus  only  could  the  laws  of  the  universe  be  discovered,  and 
the  last  mystery  solved.  Can  the  maximum  be  conceived 

*  "Kepler  and  Descartes  were  much  indebted  to  the  ancient  doc- 
trines of  these  masters  (Leucippus  and  Democritus)  for  the  explana- 
tion of  the  planetary  vortices.  Bacon  remarked  that  Democritus  and 
Leucippus  were  so  much  taken  up  with  the  particles  of  things,  as  to 
forget  or  neglect  their  structure."  Very  stupid  in  Bacon,  who  could 
not  construct  the  "Organon"  without  the  same  science  of  analysis, 
laws  of  necessary  induction,  and  logical  relations  of  all  structures 
in  the  "method"  of  nature. 

f  "Malpighi  had  early  in  life  learned  the  necessity  of  making  ex- 
periment the  foundation  of  true  philosophy,  and  was  the  first  to  use 
the  microscope  in  anatomical  observations."  W.  B. 

52* 


618  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

without  the  minimum  ?  Give  us  the  minimum,  and  we  will  pro- 
ject for  you  the  maximum.  So  have  they  meditated  through 
laborious  lives,  so  have  they  struggled  through  solitary  and 
desolate  worlds,  and  thus  have  they  stoutly  battled  with  stern 
reasoning  through  brave  analyses,  from  the  chaos  of  neces- 
sary initial  logomachies  of  the  "quantitative  or  qualitative 
relations," — "primary,  secondary,  or  infinite  number  of  par- 
ticles, homogeneous  in  quality,  heterogeneous  in  form," — 
"necessary  reality  of  vacuum  or  space  and  motion;"  that 
"all  phenomena  arise  from  the  infinite  variety  of  form,  order, 
and  position  of  the  atom  in  forming  combinations,"  "mo- 
tion being  the  eternal  necessary  consequence  of  the  origi- 
nal variety  of  atoms  in  the  vacuum  or  space,  the  atom 
being  impenetrable,"  until  they  have  emerged  into  the 
clear  sunlight  of  inductive  science;  that  nature  consists  of 
minima;  that  the  crystal  and  the  globe  are  but  masses  of 
atoms;  and  that  all  organized  bodies  are  cells  or  organic 
points;  that  the  protococcus  floating  through  the  heavens 
and  falling  with  the  rain  or  snow,  and  the  stately  elephant 
and  ponderous  whale  are  but  magical  representations  of 
that  strange  atom,  the  protoplastic  cell,*  held  under  the 

*  For  interesting  information  -with  regard  to  an  order  of  wonders 
far  outstripping  the  powers  of  the  imagination,  and  suggesting  matter 
for  profound  reflection  concerning  the  ultimate  structure  of  organic 
bodies,  made  through  the  discovery  of  the  microscope  by  modern 
naturalists,  see  the  following  dissertations: — 

Reflections  on  the  Phenomenon  of  Rejuvenescence  in  Nature,  Espe- 
cially in  the  Life  and  Development  of  Plants.  By  Dr.  Alexander 
Braun^  Professor  of  Botany  in  the  University  of  Berlin.  Leipsic, 
1851.  Translated  by  Arthur  Henfrey. 

Animal  Nature  of  Diatomeae:  with  an  Organographical  Revision 
of  the  Genera  Established  by  Kiitzing.  By  Professor  G.  Meneghini. 
Translated  from  the  original  Italian  edition.  Venice,  1845. 

On  the  Natural  History  of  Protococcus  Pluvialis.  By  Ferdinand 
Cohn.  (Abstracted  from  the  "Nova  Acta  Acad.  Caes.  Leop.  Carolin. 
Naturse  Curios.  Bonn.,"  tome  22,  pp.  605-764;  1850.)  By  George 
Busk,  F.R.S. 

Reports  and  Papers  on  Botany,  consisting  of — I.  Mohl  on  the 
Structure  of  the  Palm-stem.  II.  Nageli  on  Vegetable-cells.  III.  Nil- 


PAN.  619 

yoke  of  the  stern,  absolute  law,  that  "no  organism  is,  nor 
has  one  ever  been,  created,  which  is  not  microscopic;"  that 
"whatever  is  .larger  has  not  been  created,  but  developed;" 
that  the  "first  organic  points  are  vesicles;"  that  "the  whole 
world  of  organic  forms  originates  from  infusoria."  To  Des- 
cartes, the  starry  spaces  of  ether  were  vortices  in  which 
whirled  the  molecules  of  powdered  fire,  called  planetary  and 
sidereal  systems,  suns,  and  worlds,  and  thus  must  be  devel- 
oped the  "mechanical  theory  of  planetary  motion,"  and  the 
"architecture  of  the  heavens."  To  the  genius  of  Cuvier, 
"life  is  a  vortex,  into  which  individual  molecules  are  con- 
tinually entering,  and  from  which  they  are  continually  de- 
parting;" and  thus  must  arrive  the  theory  of  cell-formation 
and  the  doctrine  of  "utricles."  Fatal,  beautiful,  divine 
despotism !  and  so  at  last  it  is  demonstrated  that  no  organ- 
ism has  been  or  can  be  created,  which  is  not  microscopic ; 
that  the  whole  organic  world  originates  from  infusoria ;  and 
that  throughout  the  realms  of  vitality  the  first  organic  is  a 
point,  a  vesicle. 

Strange  is  this  whirl  and  flow,  strange  this  vibration  and 
libration  of  the  cell !  Life  is  a  perpetual  wonder,  a  constant 
miracle,  an  eternal  becoming  and  ceasing,  a  wasting  by  de- 
composing powers,  a  reproduction  by  recomposing  forces — 
fresh  arrivals  from  all  the  kingdoms  of  nature,  with  as  constant 
surrender  of  exhausted  particles  again  passing  away  under  the 
irresistible  affinities  of  chemistry  and  the  quick  and  nimble 

geli  on  the  TJtricular  Structures  in  the  Contents  of  Cells.  IV.  Link's 
Report  on  Physiological  Botany  for  1844-45. — Ray  Society. 

The  British  Desmidiese.  By  John  Ralfs.  The  drawings  by  Ed- 
ward Jenner. 

Manual  of  British  Algse.     Harvey. 

British  Diatomacese.     Smith. 

Berkley's  Cryptogamic  Botany. 

Also,  Queckett  on  the  Microscope,  and  the  works  of  the  animal 
and  vegetable  physiologists  generally.  «•  Hither  has  the  whole  new- 
direction  of  science  turned,  and  names  like  Robert  Brown,  Brisseau, 
Mirbel,  Amici,  and  Mohl  mark  the  commencement  of  a  new  and 
richly-blessed  epoch." 


620  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

forces  of  plastic  vitality.  This  is  the  tragic  dance  of  the  inor- 
ganic assuming  organic,  and  side  by  side  move  animation  and 
exhaustion,  activity  and  corruption,  quickness  and  death. 
Thus  is  never-ceasing  change  written  on  every  form — "Naught 
may  endure  but  mutability."  An  invisible  influx  of  atoms, 
with  a  synchronous  efflux  of  atoms,  and  the  solidest  creature 
with  life  stands  a  phenomenon  as  evanescent  as  a  changing 
cloud,  as  unreal  as  a  vanishing  shadow.  What  is  it?  A 
momentary  grasp  of  the  outward,  fleeting  as  a  vision,  an 
instantaneous  appropriation  by  assimilation  under  chemical 
and  vital  forces  in  a  specific  form,  with  definite  organic 
attributes — matter  in  the  trance  and  exaltation  of  life — 
then  comes  a  change :  the  momentary  grasp  relaxed,  the 
ghastly  transfiguration  arrives,  and  death,  the  most  inex- 
orable despot  holds,  in  a  stillness  that  seems  everlasting,  the 
form  of  light  and  life.  But  this  ghastly  corpse,  this  sacred 
dust,  is  also  a  quickly  rushing  shadow;  for  nature,  with  a 
never-intermitting  parsimony,  makes  demand  of  the  loaned 
particle,  whether  it  has  been  circulating  in  the  lip  of  beauty 
or  the  ragged  ulcer,  and  by  a  relentless  requisition  breaks  the 
sequestration  which  once  appeared  to  be  endless,  but  now, 
by  dissolution,  gives  new  life  and  motion.  This  payment  and 
separation  must  be  made,  and  the  required  atom  returned 
again  to  the  grand  reservoir  of  consumed,  exhausted,  or 
effete  matter,  either  through  secretion,  excretion,  or  death. 
And  this  phantasmal  whirl  goes  on  and  on ;  each  organ  of 
the  complex  organisms  seizes  on  its  prey,  makes  its  sub- 
stance and  use  in  the  divine  arrestation  of  whizzing  currents, 
and  the  equipoise  called  life,  exists ;  but  the  used  particle 
must  again  be  thrown  broadcast  to  the  elements — and  so 
this  endless  circulation  goes  on.  Wonderful  organ  !  still 
more  wonderful  function  !  from  low  excretion,  offensive 
and  revolting,  to  high  revelation  of  thought  and  spirit,  or 
sacred  attributes  of  love  and  affection ! !  Wonderful  organ ! 
wonderful  function !  still  more  wonderful  essence  behind  the 
organ,  artificer  of  the  organ,  creator  of  the  function,  which 
scalpel  cannot  find,  which  microscope  looks  for  in  vain !  1  Is 


PAN.  621 

the  organ  a  prophet  ?  and  are  his  mechanism  and  life  secrets 
of  God  ?  The  great  functions  and  metamorphoses  of  nature 
stand  surrounded  by  halos  of  sacred  mystery,  aureolas  of 
divine  awe. 

''Child,  youth,  and  man,  caterpillar,  chrysalis,  and  butter- 
fly, are  not  to  be  conceived  from  external  appearance,  but 
only  in  consequence  of  their  immaterial  essence,  as  one  and 
the  same  being."  Natural  history — supernatural  history — 
the  atom,  the  soul,  stand  mysteries  incomprehensible,  mira- 
cles divine.  Of  the  natural  history  of  the  soul,  what  do  we 
know  ?  Nothing.  Of  the  supernatural  history  of  the  atom, 
what  do  we  know  ?  Nothing.  Through  dark  vortices 
silently  glides  the  atom,  brave  servitor  of  the  Eternal — 
while  aloft,  on  wings  of  celestial  beauty,  soars  the  soul,  high 
minister  of  his  imperial  will,  bright  child  of  his  holy  love. 

But  there  is  a  tragic  attitude  of  the  atom  and  the  soul. 
What  is  disease  ?  What  is  infirmity  ?  What  are  care  and 
sorrow  ?  Especially,  what  is  pain  ?  What  is  physical  an- 
guish ?  What  is  death  ? 

The  philosophers  plainly  show  that  the  "first  organic 
points  are  vesicles ;"  that  the  organic  world  has  for  its  basis 
"an  infinity  of  vesicles;"  and  that  the  "organic  fundamental 
substance  consists  of  infusoria;"  so  must  the  "whole  organic 
world  originate  from  infusoria."  "Plants  and  animals  can 
only  be  metamorphoses  of  infusoria."  In  the  presence  of 
this  dread  monad,  this  "organic  fundamental,"  this  salient 
point  of  vitality,  this  vesicle,  this  protean  "cell,"  this  proto- 
plastic (germ)  substance,  which  is  the  origin  and  basis  of  all 
organic  forms,  the  philosopher  of  life,  of  organization,  of 
health  and  disease,  stands.  Leaving  to  the  mere  abstraction- 
ist the  problems  of  vitality,  the  physician  asks  :  What  is. 
health  ?  What  is  disease  ?  What  are  the  sciences  of  phy- 
siology and  pathology?  Is  it  normal  cell  formation,  or 
abnormal  protoplastic  substance;  the  elements  perverted, 
or  specifically  distinct?  Here  is  this  fearful  tubercle,  this 
hideous  cancer — here  is  a  loathsome  monstrosity  of  form,  a 
malignant  degeneration  of  tissue,  and  what  is  this  turgid,  burn- 


622  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

ing  rock  of  pained  and  perishing  fibres,  this  slow  and  corro- 
sive wasting  of  finely-organized  transparent  membranes — 
what  is  this  terrible  withering  and  wilting,  this  shrinking 
down  to  revolting  skin  and  skeleton,  this  irresistible  maras- 
mus, this  ghastly  consumption  ? 

Leaving  out  of  consideration  all  the  splendid  circles  of 
healthy  life,  where  the  majestic  wheels  turn  in  silence  and 
the  endless  gyration  of  organic  vortices  goes  on  in  har- 
monious stillness,  and  the  cell,  with  mute  but  resistless  im- 
petus, wanders  through  its  duration  rapidly,  the  pathologist, 
or  philosopher  of  morbid  vitality,  turns  to  the  jarred,  dislo- 
cated, creaking,  shrieking,  groaning,  dying  molecule — the 
cell-abortive,  malignant,  fatal,  venomous,  belligerent,  con- 
stituting the  world  of  disease,  or  the  suffering  organiza- 
tion disappearing  from  dying  cells — murdered  cells — the 
cell  arrested  in  development  or  being  redissolved  by  the 
dread  power  of  inorganic  matter — the  cell  perverted,  mor- 
bific, the  cryptogamic  spore  of  evil,  (smallpox,  scarlatina, 
hooping-cough,)  the  cell,  the  instrument  of  death. 

What  is  health  ?  what  is  disease  ?  ask  the  ponderable, 
ask  the  imponderable.  What  is  this  heritage  of  joy  and 
sweetness,  also  of  bitterness  and  ashes,  which  has  come  from 
their  vicious  love-kiss — blissful  results,  or  vengeful  consum- 
mations of  the  fatal  covenants  of  ancient  Eros  and  Anteros* 
— "fruit  of  that  forbidden  tree  whose  mortal  taste  brought 
death  into  the  world,  and  all  our  woe"  ? 

What  has  the  cell  to  do  with  the  gloomy  operations  of 
the  death-forces  in  the  tragical  processes  of  disease  ?  What 
is  its  instrumentality  in  the  category  of  great  physico-vital 

*  "We  must  especially  notice  the  connection  of  Eros  with  Anteros, 
with  which  persons  usually  connect  the  notion  of  "Love  returned." 
But  originally  Anteros  was  a  being  opposed  to  Eros,  and  fighting 
against  him.  (Paus.,  i.  30,  §  1;  vi.  23,  §  4.)  This  conflict,  however, 
was  also  conceived  as  the  rivalry  existing  between  two  lovers,  and 
Anteros  accordingly  punished  those  who  did  not  return  the  love  of 
others;  so  that  he  is  the  avenging  JSros,  a  deus  ultor."  (Paus.,  i.  30,  g  1 ; 
Ov.  Met.,  xiii.  750,  etc. ;  Plat.  Phoedr.,  p.  255,  d.) 


PAN.  623 

hydraulics,  or  specially  vital  lesions  of  circulation — forms  of 
hyperaemia,  forms  of  anaemia  ?  What  is  the  modus  operandi 
in  its  poise  and  strange  momentary  arrestation  by  the  nutri- 
tive function,  or  in  lesions  of  nutrition,  as  by  the  irregular 
arrangements  of  anatomical  elements ;  number  of  molecules — 
hypertrophy,  atrophy,  ulceration ;  consistence  of  particles — 
hardening,  softening;  nature  of  architectural  alteration  by 
distribution  of  molecules,  as  in  transformations  of  cellular, 
serous,  mucous,  cutaneous,  fibrous,  cartilaginous,  and  osseous 
structures  or  tissues?  What  is  its  duty  or  work  in  the 
troublesome  and  peculiar  lesions  of  secretion — modifications 
of  quantity,  situation,  quality,  essential  nature  ?  What  agency 
has  it  in  the  terrible  lesions  of  the  blood,  vitally  subversive, 
metamorphic,  poisoned,  or  specifically  tainted  by  heteroge- 
neous and  vicious  seeds  of  contagious  diseases  ?  What  part 
does  it  play  in  the  mysterious,  ponderable,  imponderable, 
galvanic,  vital  lesions  of  innervation?  "Old  mole  of  the 
ground !"  art  forever  here — substance  and  shadow,  ubiqui- 
tously present  still  ?  On  the  wings  of  the  rosy  morning  of 
health,  life,  and  joy,  thou  art  with  us,  and  in  the  anguish  and 
despair  of  the  midnight  of  disease  and  death  thou  never 
forsakest  us. 

The  actor  at  play  in  this  dreary  domain  of  abnormal 
phenomena,  called  disease,  is  still  the  cell,  under  the  grasp 
of  the  imponderable,  for  "the  aether  imparts  the  substance, 
the  heat  the  form,  the  light  the  life."  "The  formative 
nutrient  process  is  the  principal  process  of  the  organic 
world;"  but  "death  is  only  a  continuous  growth  through 
retrogression  into  the  primary  matter  of  infusoria."  An 
organ  tending  to  death  can  thus  only  be  in  a  stage  of  "con- 
tinuous growth,  through  retrogression,  into  the  primary  mat- 
ter or  infusoria."  Hence,  in  the  calamitous  forms  of  vital 
phenomena,  which  are  classified  as  diseases,  we  can  only  be 
presented  with  the  "aether  the  substance,  the  heat  the  form, 
the  light  the  life;"  and  when  the  aether  resumes  the  sub- 
stance, and  the  heat  surrenders  the  form,  and  the  light  gives 
up  the  life,  it  is  but  &  continuous  growth  through  the  retro- 


624  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

gression  of  death.  Alas !  that  this  should  be  through  pain 
to  the  soul.  Stupendous  joke  of  nature !  tyrannous  law  of 
unity ! — to  the  eye  of  science  there  are  no  fixtures,  no  spe- 
cialties, no  abysses  or  secrets,  no  novelties  or  wonders,  no 
high,  no  low,  no  new,  no  old — only  despotic  law,  eternal 
change,  everlasting  motion,  and  death  itself,  but  a  "multi- 
plication of  self!!" 

As  this  perfected  instrument,  this  summit  of  nature's  or- 
ganic developments,  the  wondrous  body  of  man,  is  itself  but 
a  bag  of  water,  a  sack  of  fluids,  quivering  with  million  vibra- 
tions, whirling  with  million  vortices — churnings  of  ponderable 
and  imponderable,  flowings  of  organic  mucus,  heat,  light,  and 
galvanism — all  possible  conditions  of  that  structure,  from  first 
salient  point  of  life  to  retrogression  into  primary  infusoria 
again,  or  death,  health,  disease,  normal  symmetry,  abnormal 
deformity,  and  dissolution,  can  only  be  the  tragical  dance  of 
identical  ponderable  and  imponderable,  identical  inorganic, 
organic,  and  identical  cell,  in  the  tissue,  the  organ,  the  or- 
ganism. But  this  movement  and  progression  of  the  organic, 
"with  its  multifariously  complicated  ascending  and  de- 
scending vibrations,  is  sustained  in  every  case  only  by  reno- 
vation," which  renovation  is  the  phenomenon  of  rejuvenes- 
cence, " profoundly  [inseparably!']  connected  with  the 
essence,  and  lying  at  the  base  of  all  natural  life."  There  is 
thus  no  possible  rejuvenescence  in  nature,  except  that  which 
commences  with  the  cell,  or  the  only  point  from  which  it  is 
possible  for  any  organism  to  exist  at  all.  The  cell  is  the  divine 
focus  of  renovation,  the  cell  is  the  sempiternal  fountain  of  reju- 
venescence. The  philosophy  of  rejuvenescence,  which  is  the 
restoration  (renovation)  of  the  original  vitality  or  expansive 
life- power  of  the  cell,  whether  arrested,  defectively  developed, 
or  morbidly  endowed,  whether  injured  by  disease,  or  ex- 
hausted by  old  age,  is  the  philosophy  of  the  venerable  and 
thrice-blessed  Art  of  Healing.  The  body  of  man  is  sick, 
agonized  by  intense  morbid  action,  (acute  disease,  phlogistic 
destruction  of  important  organs,)  or  jaded  and  attenuated  by 
long-continued  morbid  degeneration,  (wilting  out  by  chronic 


PAN.  625 

disease,)  and  gone  by  excesses  in  every  shape  of  wasting  or 
effete  outpouring;  nervous  system  run  down  like  a  clock, 
and  tottering,  rickety,  on  the  verge  of  dissolution  by  exhaus- 
tion of  life  in  a  medium  whose  atmosphere  is  fire  and  poison- 
ous gases;  or  the  sack  of  water*  which  floats  the  organs  is 
impure,  filled  with  corrupt  particles — terrible  crop  of  spe- 
cific disease,  sprinklings  from  different  pools  of  the  Stygian 
River,  involving,  as  they  do,  all  possible  injuries,  as  lesions 
of  circulation,  lesions  of  nutrition,  lesions  of  secretion,  lesions 
of  blood,  and  lesions  of  innervation,  and  can  only  be  relieved 
through  centrifugal  forces  by  the  removal  of  abnormal  and 
the  substitution  of  normal  elements.  By  what  instrumentali- 
ties does  the  medical  philosopher  propose  to  execute  the 
arrestation  or  the  elimination  of  disease,  the  prevention  of 
destruction,  or  expulsion  of  morbific  or  dead  molecules,  and 
the  establishment  of  newly-vitalized  or  renovated  atoms  ?  A 
full  catalogue  of  all  his  implements  of  cure  or  assistants  of 
nature  would  be  an  entire  schedule,  or  resume  of  the  prin- 
ciples and  resources  of  the  science  of  medicine  in.  the  treat- 
ment of  the  whole  world  of  acute  and  chronic  diseases,  re- 
corded in  the  extensive  and  painfully  elaborated  literature  of 
that  noble  profession. 

The  vicious  states,  conditions,  and  habitudes  of  organs  and 
tissues,  called  chronic  diseases,  being  in  existence,  and  the 
powers  of  the  healing  art  being  called  into  requisition,  the 
pathologist  has  still  only  the  tragical  play  of  ponderable  and 
imponderable,  the  aBther  imparting  the  substance,  the  heat  the 
form,  the  light  the  life,  modified  by  time.  All  interference 
of  art  in  these  conditions  is  often  vain,  in  a  certain  medium 
or  habitat,  from  the  despotism  of  local  causes.  In  an  ex- 
tensive range  of  diseased  conditions  in  particular  locali- 
ties, it  seems  indispensable,  to  secure  a  sanitary  change, 
that  all  the  relations,  as  far  as  possible,  of  ponderable  and 
imponderable,  be  modified,  and  that  a  new  heat,  light,  and 
galvanism,  also  new  moral  and  aesthetic  surroundings,  must 

*  "Life  and  organization  -without  water  are  inconceivable." 

SCHLEIDEN. 

53 


626  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

be  brought  to  bear  upon  those  conditions  of  the  organism, 
to  insure  a  return  to  the  normal  state.  Especially  does  this 
involve  an  abandonment  of  the  predisponent  and  exciting 
causes  of  chronic  diseases,  as  of  vicious  and  artificial  habits, 
and  violation  of  the  laws  of  nature. 

Thus,  from  all  history,  all  science  of  man,  from  the  depths 
of  existence,  in  all  his  relations  to  the  world,  is  heard  the 
still  small  voice,  the  pleading  prayer  of  nature,  come  to  me — 
come  back  to  the  golden  orient  of  your  primal  union  with 
me — come  back  to  the  charmed  realm  of  original  life-foun- 
tains— come  back  from  the  wallows  of  sin — come  back  from 
the  hot-beds  of  the  artificial  life — come  back  to  the  little 
child's  simplicity  and  holiness,  "for  of  such  [only]  is  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,"  of  health,  the  paradise  of  rejuvenes- 
cence of  the  body,  and  to  such  only  shall  be  added  the 
perennial  raptures  of  the  normal  or  sound  soul.  The  stern 
command  from  the  world  of  pain  is,  also,  return  to  nature 
— let  new  life-currents  stream  through  the  weary  and  sick- 
ened body — let  the  cell,  the  original,  the  only  focus  of 
renovation  or  germ  of  rejuvenescence,  be  bathed  in  a  new 
ocean  of  air,  washed  with  purer,  fresher  water,  startled  by 
a  new  galvanism,  and  be  made  quickly,  freshly  alive  by  a 
new  polarity  of  vital  points.  Bring  all  new  influences  to 
bear  upon  the  body  in  the  charmed  power  of  the  country 
life,  the  only  medium  of  organic  renovation.  Go  to  the 
woods  and  fields;  go  into  the  fresh  and  dewy  haunts  of 
Pan;  go  to  the  rock,  the  roaring  forest,  the  flowing  river; 
go  to  the  dream-grotto  of  the  poet;  go  to  the  first  temples 
of  the  gods,  and  your  dust  shall  be  renewed  by  a  heavenly 
metamorphosis,  and  the  enchantments  of  health  shall  play 
through  your  bones.  Bring  also  the  new  influence  to  bear 
upon  the  soul ;  let  a  new  world  address  the  mind  through  the 
avenues  of  the  senses,  as  by  new  objects  of  beauty,  freshness, 
and  sweetness ;  let  a  new  murmur  of  the  leaf,  and  voice  of 
bird,  and  water-fall,  charm  the  ear,  whispering  holy  dreams ; 
let  the  clouds  float  over  the  eye  to  the  music  of  a  new 
melody,  and  a  fresh  world  be  redolent  of  all  that  breathes  a 


PAN.  627 

newness  of  life,  or  speaks  of  light  and  of  deity — then  must 
also  this  magical  permeation  reach  your  spirit,  and  a  rejuven- 
escence by  celestial  transubstantiation  of  the  whole  man  be 
achieved,  and  you  shall  be  startled  into  the  regenerate  life 
as  deliciously  as  you  awake  from  a  refreshing  slumber. 

And  does  all  this  laying  down  of  the  burdens  of  weariness, 
this  heavenly  awakening  and  beautiful  resurrection  to  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  joys  of  the  plane  of  a  higher  and  renewed 
life,  the  sound  mind  in  the  sound  body,  this  rhythmical  rela- 
tionship to  the  world,  this  rapturous  flow  of  milk  and  honey, 
come  from  the  renewed  infusorial  point ;  all  from  the  regener- 
ated "primordial  utricle  and  cell-nucleus;"  all  these  fine  re- 
sults and  stupendous  ends  from  such  small  details  of  things  ? 
"We  wonder,  and  ask  ourselves,  what  does  'small'  mean  in 
nature  ?"  The  world  is  a  bundle  of  small  details;  continents 
and  islands,  hills  and  mountains,  are  made  of  small  microsco- 
pic organic  remains ;  and  forests  and  coal-fields  are  only  accu- 
mulations of  small  vegetable  cells.  "  The  imagination  halts 
in  the  attempt  to  realize  these  masses  of  organic  life,  when 
we  remember  that  a  single  chalk-enameled  visiting  card  forms 
a  zoological  cabinet  of,  perhaps,  a  hundred  thousand  shells. 
As  Galileo,  Kepler,  Newton,  and  Herschel  introduced  us  into 
an  infinite  world  of  huge  magnitudes;  as  Columbus,  Magel- 
lan, and  their  successors  first  unfolded  to  us  one  entire  half 
of  the  earth,  so,  in  the  present  day,  has  Ehrenberg,  by  his 
untiring  industry,  laid  open  to  us  a  wonderful  world  of  or- 
ganic life,  which — small  as  are  the  individuals  composing  it, 
invisible  to  the  keenest  eye  when  unassisted — through  the 
inconceivable  activity  of  development,  through  the  number, 
vast  beyond  expression,  of  single  beings,  heaps  up  masses, 
before  which  man  himself  seems  insignificant."*  The  in- 
organic exists  only  as  a  great  substratum  of  the  organic, 
and  in  the  minute  mechanism  of  things,  and  laws  of  vitality, 
alone  can  be  found  the  philosophy  of  the  world.  The  sublime 
brain  of  Shakspeare  was  but  a  congeries  of  organic  points ; 
and  the  most  minute  animal,  the  Nonas  termo,  is  presided 
*  Schleiden. 


628  THE   MOUNTAIN. 

over  by  the  same  law  of  organic  necessity.  This  majestic 
simplicity  carries  the  soul  into  a  region  of  perpetual  wonder, 
demanding,  as  "the  only  condition  of  real  insight,  veneration 
and  love."  Patient  labor,  and  assiduous  devotion  in  effort, 
to  explain  the  smallest  minutiaB  of  the  world,  present  the  only 
pathway  to  the  secrets  of  nature,  or  mode  of  realizing  our 
connection  with  her  great  system  of  ends  and  uses.  The 
vaticination  of  the  genius  of  the  Greek  comes  then  as  a  first 
inspiration  of  science,  and  the  myth  of  Pan  is  the  song  of 
the  "cell.*"f 

*  "  Primordial  utricle"  of  Hugo  von  Mohl. 

f  As  an  instance  of  flagrant  and  reckless  profanity  of  a  would-be 
philosopher,  and  sacrilegious  disregard,  to  the  religious  sentiments  as 
organized  in  the  worship  of  the  Gentile  world  for  ages,  and  embodied 
in  the  wonderful  mythologies  of  the  different  nations,  witness  the 
following  extract;  from  which  it  may  appear  well  enough  for  an  im- 
pertinent theological  Philistine,  ensconced  in  the  comfortable  cocoon 
of  modern  Christianity  and  smartness,  to  talk  in  this  manner;  but 
to  the  true  philosopher,  the  myth  is  really  the  higher  world — seen 
through  the  glass  of  nature,  possibly,  somewhat  darkly: — 

"Great  latitude  must  be  allowed  on  the  score  of  poetry,  and  the 
despotism  of  private  opinion,  in  rendering  all  classics  and  classical 
allusion,  myths  and  Scriptures.  As  to  profound  philosophical  and 
philological  interpretations  of  the  Greek  or  any  other  myths,  is  not  a 
man  his  own  horizon?  or  can  a  man  lift  himself  up  by  his  own  ears? 
and,  looking  from  the  obscure  depths  of  the  well  of  his  own  nature, 
what  can  he  see  but  its  walls,  upon  which  is  written  inscrutable  mys- 
tery ;  or  possibly  extending  his  vision  beyond  those  walls,  he  may 
discern  a  spot  of  azure  or  a  star  gleaming  in  still  more  immeasurable 
depths  of  the  infinite  heavens,  upon  which  is  written  everlasting  in- 
comprehensibility and  wonder.  As  is  the  man,  so  is  his  reading  of 
all  myths,  symbols,  scriptures,  men,  and  gods.  A  wise  natural  guess 
would  probably  come  as  near  to  the  gist  or  hidden  meaning  of  many 
of  the  fables  which  have  occupied  the  world's  solemn  consideration 
as  the  thousand-and-one  interpretations  of  the  most  acute  mytholo- 
gists.  Numberless  are  the  ways  through  which  the  Infinite  communi- 
cates with  the  finite,  and  numberless  are  the  ways  which  the  finite 
has  of  reading  the  hieroglyphics  of  the  Infinite. 

"Human  scribes  and  interpreters  are  infirm,  and  it  is  supreme 
folly  for  one  man  to  try  to  think  for  any  other  man;  absurd  for  one 
man  to  attempt  to  read  or  interpret  anything  for  another  man,  or  for 


PAN. 

It  was  surely  wise  and  well  not  to  neglect,  or  leave  en- 
tirely out  of  the  councils  of  Olympus,  even  the  smallest  con- 
cerns of  the  world,  to  the  last  details  of  things ;  the  mean 
and  vulgar  (these  words  have  no  defamatory  significance 
or  meaning  in  the  science  of  matter  and  organization,  but 
in  sentiment  and  morals  they  have,)  holding  as  actual  ex- 
istence as  the  elegant  and  divine,  must  be  represented  as 
departments  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  pantheon  of  the 
gods.  The  great  and  imposing  forms  of  matter,  their  laws 
and  relations,  would  naturally  suggest  grand  and  dignified 
deities,  as  kingly  Zeus,  (Jupiter,*)  "ruler  of  the  heavens 
and  upper  regions,  and  father  of  gods  and  men;"  queenly 
and  motherly  goddess  of  the  earth,  Gaea  or  Ge,  "per- 
sonification of  the  earth;"  terrible  god  of  the  ocean,  Nep- 
tunus,  (Poseidon;)  or  gloomy  "pater  Tartarus"  Pluto,  god 
of  infernal  regions ;  but  that  all  the  kingdoms  of  being 
shall  be  ruled,  including  the  forlorn  abominations  of  the 
world,  there  must  be  supernals  of  less  degree,  humble  and 
lowly  deities.  Hence  the  number  of  "beastly  divinities  and 
droves  of  gods"  infesting  the  purlieus  of  the  celestial  moun- 
tain. It  must  also  be  a  law  and  appear  as  a  necessity  that 
each  Olympian  should  carry  with  him  some  prestige  of  his 
personality  and  power,  and  be  announced  without  herald; 

the  jrest  of  mankind.  In  all  things,  then,  it  behooves  us,  of  course 
with  great  caution  and  circumspection,  gravity  and  decorum,  to  pro- 
ceed on  our  "own  hooks";  and  every  man  being  his  own  philoso- 
pher, philologist,  mythologist,  and  spiritual  factotum,  let  him  read 
the  myths  and  scriptures  of  the  dreamy  and  poetical  races  with  what- 
ever spectacles  he  sees  proper  to  put  on  his  nose,  or  read  them,  if  he 
pleases,  or  can,  without  'specks'  at  all.  One  thing  he  must  do  or  die, 
as  a  rational  being — stick  to  the  verdicts  of  the  private  judgment  in  all 
his  readings,  thinking  precisely  what  he  pleases ;  or  must,  by  the  fatal 
laws  of  his  constitution,  of  letter  and  spirit,  internal,  external  mean- 
ing— primordial  idea,  or  consequent  material  symbol,  Boodh,  Jupiter, 
Juno,  Mars,  Venus,  Atlas,  Esculapius,  Hygeia,  Antaeus,  and  Pan." 
— Robert  Smith's  Critique  on  Cicero's  "De  Natura  Deorum"  chap.  xii. 
page  405. 

*  "The  eagle,  the  oak,  and  the  summits  of  mountains  were  sacred 
to  this  god." 


630  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

hence  his/orm  must  reveal  or  express  his  attributes,  and  be 
the  impersonation  or  material  and  ethereal  representation  of 
the  royalties  and  insignia  of  his  own  kingdom. 

"Jupiter  and  Minerva  have  high  foreheads  and  command- 
ing brows,  while  Pan  and  Yulcan  have  narrow,  small,  and 
mean  heads;"  yet  the  procession  of  things  and  the  guardian- 
ship of  the  great  common  essentials  would  stop,  but  for  these 
ugly  gods  with  "mean  heads;"  arid  Pan  and  Yulcan  are  in- 
dispensable, and  the  ascendants  of  the  hour,  for  they  manage 
the  world  and  "shape  us  a  home  of  refuge  here."  Without 
the  flow  of  milk  and  honey,  and  the  constant  renewal  of  all 
things  through  this  god  of  the  woods  and  "guardian  of 
flocks,"  this  player  "upon  the  pipe  of  seven  reeds,"  whose 
"sheep-hook  signifies  the  turning  of  the  year  into  itself," 
this  feeder  (-««>,  pasco,)  of  herds  and  filler  of  milk-sacks,  this 
Pan,  himself  a  symbol  of  the  world,  what  were  the  earth,  and 
the  inhabitants  thereof?  Without  the  magical  artifices  of 
the  stithy,  and  the  cunning  of  the  right  hand  of  Yulcan 
and  his  forges,  this  "  god  of  fire  and  furnaces,"  the  prophet 
and  evangelist  of  the  times,  (the  ferruginous  element,  or  iron, 
being  the  true  implement  of  advancement,  witness  old  mari- 
ner's needle,  railroad  bar,  locomotive,  and  telegraph  wire, 
etc.,)  where  would  be  the  word  progress;  and  what  would 
become  of  the  rushing  and  expansive  spirit,  which  is  the 
genius  of  the  riotous  hour  in  which  we  live  ?  Blessed  be' the 
gods  who  have  supervision  and  charge  of  the  lowly  details, 
the  homely  works,  and  repulsive  chores,  or  actual  things  to 
be  done,  (which,  after  all,  somebody  must  do) — blessed  be 
the  "beastly  divinities"  who  preside  over  the  ghastly  secrets 
and  wants  of  our  bodies  and  the  world — thrice  blessed  the 
stalwart,  rugged  Olympians  who  are  making  the  earth  habit- 
able and  heavenly,  and  necessities  humble  and  obscure,  the 
golden  gates  to  undreamed-of  paradises  of  the  high  and 
divine. 

This  Pan,  the  god  of  the  woods,  had  a  dismal  exterior, 
and  was  at  first  the  joke  of  the  skies,  although  "all  the  gods 
were  afterwards  delighted  with  him."  At  his  birth,  his 


PAN.  631 

mother,  as  we  have  seen,  fled  in  dismay  from  what  seemed 
to  be  a  monster — half-man,  half-animal,  having  "goat's  feet, 
beard,  puck  nose,  tail,  horns,  and  covering  of  hair."  Repre- 
senting the  shrubs,  wild  beasts,  trees,  and  rocks  of  the  earth 
below,  this  drinker  of  the  blood  of  wolves  must  superintend 
the  low  and  common-place,  the  troublesome  needs  of  the 
human  body  and  of  the  world,  microscopic  horrors  of  man's 
mere  animal  nature,  subserving  the  humblest  functions,  struc- 
tures, and  uses  of  the  elements  of  his  mechanism — not  only 
the  handsome  and  graceful,  not  only  the  sweet  and  beautiful, 
but  the  homely  and  necessary,  the  absolute  and  indispensa- 
ble. "In  his  lower  part  he  is  shagged  and  deformed  as  beast  of 
the  earth,"  that  fatal  tail  and  hoof  (cloven-foot)  unlocking  the 
secrets  of  the  dreary  domain,  the  dread  kingdom  of  brutality. 
"But  in  his  upper  part  he  resembles  a  man,"  and  that  radiant 
face  is  "like  the  splendor  of  the  sky;"  those  horns  are  "like 
the  sun  and  horns  of  the  moon ;"  while  the  "leopard's  skin 
which  he  wears  is  an  image  of  the  starry  firmament,"  for  is 
not  Pan  also  a,  symbol  of  the  Universe  ?  Let  us  rejoice  with 
great  joy  that  he  is  the  "President  of  the  mountains  and  of 
country  life;"  that  when  he  blows  his  pipe  all  milk-founts 
are  filled,  cream  drops  from  distended  udders,  and  the  honey- 
bee is  busy.  Shall  he  not  play  on  the  syrinx,  and  "wander 
on  the  summits  of  mountains  and  rocks,  and  in  valleys,  either 
amusing  himself  with  the  chase  or  leading  the  dances  of  the 
nymphs  ?"  Surely  let  this  rollicking  god  of  pastures  and 
groves,  flocks,  shepherds,  and  huntsmen,  this  increaser  of 
herds,  this  "guardian  of  everything  connected  with  pastoral 
life,"  and  patron  of  bees,  roam  over  the  mountains  and  wan- 
der through  the  forests,  piping,  if  he  pleases,  with  noise  and 
riot — let  him  instruct  Apollo  in  prophecy,  "  sing  and  dance 
the  lyric  songs  of  Pindar,"  dreaming  of  Echo  the  beautiful, 
and  Pitys  the  adored;  and  perpetual  fires  shall  burn  in  his 
temples;  and  all  who  desire  a  renewal  of  their  life-forces 
and  constant  return  to  the  splendors  of  youth  or  rejuvenizing 
forever,  will  continue  to  offer  to  him  his  ancient  sacrifices  of 
"cows,  rams,  lambs,  milk,  and  honey." 


632  THE    MOUNTAIN. 

The  god  of  the  woods  stands  the  great  symbol  of  the 
"primordial  utricle,"  the  personification  of  the  perfect  "cell" 
or  original  "  germ"  of  the  organic  world. 

"Pan  was,  from  his  birth,  perfectly  developed,  and  had 
the  same  appearance  as  afterward." 

"No  organism  has  been  created  of  larger  size  than  an 
infusorial  point. " 

"The  formative  nutrient  process  is  the  principal  pro- 
cess of  the  organic  world." 

Thus  is  it  that  the  great  inspirations  and  prophecies  of 
the  Reason  march  whole  ages  before  the  perceptions  and 
demonstrations  of  the  Understanding,  and  the  pipe  of  Pan, 
the  hymns  of  Homer,  and  the  ancient  atom,  herald  the  ad- 
vent of  the  microscope,  the  doctrine  of  "cells,"  and  the 
philosophy  of  development  and  rejuvenescence  in  Nature, 


FINIS. 


